There's a hole in the world
by LeaJailbird
Summary: Fitting in at Hogwarts is not easy, especially not when the only person you trust is the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. How is young Ruby gonna handle the fact that her friend from school wanna meet her family?
1. Prologue

_I repeat: English is not my first language, so my grammar may not be perfect. If you see anything wrong, please correct me. I love to learn :D_

The day came faster than I'd ever thought. And long before I was prepared.  
I had a wand. I was learning to become a witch. I was going to a school far away from Fleet Street and far away from everything I'd ever know of. It felt like that big train was going to take me to another world. And maybe it was, after all. A world of magic.  
"Don't look so frightened, Ruby dear. It will be a big adventure for you, I'm sure." Mrs. Lovett smiled to me. I tried to smile back, but failed. I didn't want any adventure. I wanted to feel safe.  
Toby never seemed to be nervous. He smiled to Mrs. Lovett and gave her a hug.  
"Goodbye, mum. I will write you a letter every day, I promise. And send it by an owl, or whatever they do at that school."  
"Bye, Toby. Take care."  
Then she hugged me as well.  
"Goodbye, Mrs. Lovett. I'll miss you." I whispered. Her embrace was so warm and safe, I wanted to never let go of that hug.  
"Oh, we will soon meet again, love. Don't worry. You come home for Christmas holiday, don't you?"  
"Of course." I tried to smile again, but still failed.  
And then, Sweeney. He put his hand on my shoulder, looked deep into my eyes.  
"Be careful, my girl."  
I nodded silently. Then he gave me a hug as well.  
"You won't slit the throat of Mrs. Lovett while I'm gone, right?" I whispered, quiet as a breath. It was mostly meant as a joke, but I could never be sure.  
"No, I won't." he whispered back. "I promise."  
"I love you, Sweeney. " I breathe back.  
Then we let go. Loudly I said:  
"Goodbye, Mr. Todd."  
"Goodbye, Ruby. Goodbye, Toby."  
"Goodbye, Mr. Todd."  
Toby and I got on the train and it started moving. We waved at Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett through the window, until they disappeared. Something still hurt inside of me. But at least I had Toby by my side.  
We sat down and talked about what we were going to expire at this mysterious school, Hogwarts. The houses we were sorted in for different qualities, the sport called Quidditch, the letters sent by owls and the classes. The new world we were going to.  
"Hi, can we sit here?" The girl was tall and blonde, with tanned skin and big green eyes. The boys looked like brothers: they had the same grey eyes, the same black hair and the same shy smile.  
"Yes, of course you can." answered Toby, and they sat down.  
"I'm Veruca, by the way." said the blonde girl. "Veruca Paige."  
"I'm Brian Adams, and this is my twin brother Luke." said one of the boys. "What are your names?"  
"Tobias Lovett, nice to meet you." Toby shook hands with all of them. "But you can call me Toby, everyone does."  
_Tobias Ragg he was, once. But why should he wear the name of parents he had never known, when he could have the name of the person who became like a mother to him?_  
"I'm Ruby." I said, a bit shyer than Toby. "Ruby Todd."  
_Ruby Jones I was, once. But why should I wear the name of the father who beat mother to death? When I could have the name of the person who saved me from the street, gave me a home, made me his little girl…  
_Oh, Sweeney. I still didn't know how I was going to survive without him until Christmas vacation.  
"Are you brother and sister?" asked Veruca. "You seem very close to each other."  
I had a look at Toby. Maybe we could have been. We had about the same physique, both of us had dark hair (although his was black and mine more dark brown), and we lived together. In the same family.  
"Yes." Toby answered, made a long story short.


	2. 1  They all deserve to die

I never referred to Toby as anything but my brother. Never foster brother, half brother, adopted brother or anything like that. Just brother. If anyone wondered why we didn't have the same last name, I said that we had different fathers. Which of course was true, what people didn't have to know was the fact that we had different mothers as well. If anyone asked why we were at the same age if we had different fathers, I said that I actually was one year older than the other first year students but was born in October and hadn't had my eleventh birthday when the kids who were born the same year as me went to Hogwarts. That was also true, but it was true for Toby as well. We both had our twelfth birthday shortly after arriving to Hogwarts.  
At home, we were not at all that close to each other as we were at Hogwarts. It was the way it always had been: Toby lived downstairs with Mrs. Lovett and helped her with the pies; I lived upstairs with Sweeney and helped him with cleaning up after his victims and burn the corps we didn't put into pies. Toby feared Sweeney, Sweeney was mostly annoyed at Mrs. Lovett and Mrs. Lovett sometimes was jealous at me for being so close to Sweeney. Sometimes Toby feared me as well. It was complicated, but somehow we were still a family.  
And as soon as we got to Hogwarts, so far away from home, Toby and I really were as close as brother and sister. We were each other's last piece of home in a new magic world.  
But even if Toby suspected and feared Sweeney, he still didn't know the truth about the meat pies. Toby was an honest boy who would have run to the police as soon as he could if we told him, while I had a different background. I had seen my father beat my mother to death, heard her cry and seen her blood all over the floor. I was nine years old, and that was when I lost all my faith about goodness in the world.  
And when Sweeney told me about his fifteen years in a living hell, the family he longed for and the feeling of coming home to find out that they were forever lost, I understood him. In the people who´s throats he slit I saw my father, and that's why I agreed with Sweeney.  
_There's a hole in the world like a great black pit  
And it's filled with people who are filled with shit  
And the vermin of the world inhabit it  
But not for long  
They all deserve to die_

Maybe that is why Toby was sorted into Hufflepuff, while I ended up in Slytherin. With people who mostly were mud blood-hating freaks.  
Toby quickly made friends: in Hufflepuff everybody was nice and friendly. In Slyherin everything was much harder. It was not the way I'd heard it would be, that every Slytherin student was evil and wanted all muggels to die, but there was a Scorpius Malfoy and some other boys who had kind of that attitude. But they had it all from their fathers, I was told by a Gryffindor boy whose father had gone to school with Mr. Malfoy.  
I made two friends: Veruca from the train and another girl, Felicity Starr. But I never grew close to them. Toby could tell his friends that his parents were dead and that he now lived with his new mother, Mrs. Lovett. I didn't have any short and easy story like that one. Nothing was easy in my life, everything was a mess.  
Sweeney was the only one I could ever talk to. So I wrote him long letters every week, told him everything about my magic school.

"… and then, he told me that I am maybe the most beautiful girl he has ever been dating, he kissed me and we…"  
"Maybe? How does that feel? Being only _maybe _the most beautiful girl in his life?"  
Felicity blushed. "Why do I discuss this with you at all? I don't expect you to understand true love, Veruca."  
"Well, I understand enough to realize that Scorpius Malfoy won't take you home to introduce you to his parents until he surely knows your blood status. My cousin, Roxanne Weasley in Gryffindor, knows everything about the Malfoy family, her father went to school with Mr. Draco Malfoy."  
"I don't care about your cousin! Scorpius loves me, and he surely will take me home to meet his parents this Christmas!" Felicity yelled and walked across the common room and out.  
Veruca shock her head. "Stupid girl. How can she stand herself?"  
"Silly little nit…"  
"What?"  
I blushed. "Mrs. Lovett use to say that…"  
_Silly little nit, had her chance for the moon on a string  
Poor thing…  
_"Mrs. Lovett, is that your mother?"  
When I didn't answer, Veruca sighted. "Seriously, Ruby. I've known you for four years and I still don't know anything about your life outside Hogwarts. Your family can't be worse than mine, right?"  
I smiled. I actually liked Veruca's family. Mrs. Paige was a Healer at Sankt Mungo's and Mr. Paige had a shop in the Diagon Alley. Veruca had three brothers and one sister, so when I was at her place last Easter holiday everything was kind of a mess. But her parents were absolutely wonderful to me.  
"Remember, Ruby, I'm your friend. I won't judge you."  
_Friendship is about trusting. Maybe it's time to tell her…  
_"My biological parents are dead." That was only half the truth, but I hated my father so much that I wished he was dead. "I live in London, Fleet Street, with Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney and Toby. Toby is an orphan as well, and he is not actually my brother. It was only the easiest thing to tell people. We were both saved from the street, he by Mrs. Lovett and I by Sweeney."  
"Is THAT what you have been hiding all these years!Nothing worse than the fact that you are adopted and that Toby is not your brother!"  
_If you only knew, Veruca. My foster parents kill people and put them into pies…_

I tried not to tell her too much, I really did. But she was stubborn. And the more I told her, the more interested she was.  
"Veruca wants to come to Fleet Street and see my family this Christmas." I said to Toby when we met in a corridor.  
"Well, that's fun, isn't it?  
"No. Because she can't."  
"Why not? I'm gonna ask Mum if Brian and Luke can come home with me."  
"Yes, but…"  
"What?"  
_But you can pretend to be normal, Toby. You have a mother who makes pies for you, I have a killer who is… my best friend. Never father. And nothing is normal with me and Sweeney. We are both too angry, sad, hating and still searching for revenge on the whole human race._  
"…but Mrs. Lovett will allow you to bring friends home. I'm not that sure about Mr. Todd."  
"You can always send him an owl and ask."  
I did. And he said yes.

_I always think about it as I found my soul mate that day. And though I wanted to die until I felt that razor against my throat, I think about it as I was brought back to life as well.  
Life was hard in the streets. Especially for a girl at the age of eleven. I tried to survive the best I could, stealing food and fighting for shelter with other homeless children, but I was always cold and hungry. And I could never return home; my father had killed my mother and I know he wouldn't hesitate to kill me as well, if I gave him a reason.  
Then that man Mr. Corlett found me. I shouldn't have trusted him, but I was so deathly tired of the life in the streets. And he didn't look like he wanted to harm me…  
I followed him home and had the loveliest food I'd ever eat. I was even exhausted enough to fall asleep as soon as I laid down in the bed he offered me.  
When he raped me that night, I swore to never ever trust anyone again. I was naïve enough to trust Mr. Corlett, and thanks to that I became his slave. He forced me to work for him under threat of raping me again. If I didn't obey, he beat me. And besides, I had nowhere to go. I was stuck.  
Until that day he went for a shave. People used to say that Adolfo Pirelli was the best barber in London, but now everyone was talking about a man named Sweeney Todd. So Mr. Corlett went to him. And I followed him, dressed like a boy with my long hair hidden inside a hat.  
I watched Mr. Todd while my master sat down in a chair in the middle of the room. The barber was pale as death and had black hair with a white streak. His eyes were deep, brown and very beautiful and I guessed I would have found him attractive if I had been older. But I was only a child, who should have had a safe home and a loving family…  
Just in the moment I thought that, Mr. Todd slit the throat of Mr. Corlett. In chock I saw the blood of the man I hated spurt, saw him shake before he died. Then Mr. Todd turned to me, removed the corpse from the chair and put me there.  
"I guess you need a shave as well, lad?" His eyes were cold as death itself and now I was shaking.  
"No, sir. Please."  
He got his razor, still covered with blood, and held it against my throat. I was so terrified I couldn't help I started to cry.  
"I'm not even I boy." I sobbed, throwing my hat off and showing him my long, dark brown hair. "Please, don't kill me. Please. I'll do anything."  
I was still crying when he put his razor down. Throw my tears I saw that he softened a bit, maybe he shouldn't kill a little girl after all?  
He put his hand on my shoulder. "Then calm down, girl. Could you tell me who you are and why you are with that man, dressed up as a boy?"  
I tried to stop crying, took deep breaths.  
"My name is Ruby. He got me from the street, made me his slave. He told me to dress as a boy so no man would covet me."  
Saying those words made me feel, stronger than ever before, how much I hated him. I looked at his bloody body and mumbled:  
"He deserved it."  
"Pardon?" Mr. Todd looked very surprised.  
"He deserved to die, sir." I still don't know why I suddenly decided to broke my promise to myself and trust another man, a complete stranger. Maybe it was because of those beautiful eyes. Or maybe because he although had set me free from Mr. Corlett.  
"You see Mr. Todd; the only man who would ever covet me was he. He raped me the very first day we met."  
"How old are you?"  
"Eleven years old, sir."  
"God. You're only a child!" He was angry, I saw that." How come you're not with your parents?"  
Well, I had already started to open up. So I started to cry again and told Mr. Todd the whole story about my beautiful mother and her soft hands, my father who hated us both and the feeling when I saw him beat her to death. The screams which still plagued me in my sleep every night.  
When I was finished, he softly pulled me up from the chair and gave me a hug. A soft, consoling, warm hug of compassion. I closed my eyes, wrapped my arms around him and wanted to never let go of that hug. I hadn't felt so safe since my mother was alive.  
We stood that way for a while. When he let go, I felt brave enough to ask:  
"Why did you kill him, sir? Did you know he deserved it?"  
"They all deserve it, Ruby. They all deserve to die. There's a hole in the world like a great black pit and it's filled with people who are filled with shit and the vermin of the world inhabit it…"  
He sighted, his eyes were suddenly filled of pain. "I used to have a perfect life, you see. I had a beautiful wife and the most adorable little daughter in London, but it was all taken away from me…"  
He started to sing.  
"There was a barber and his wife  
And she was beautiful  
A foolish barber and his wife  
She was his reason and his life  
And she was beautiful  
And she was virtuous  
And he was…  
Naïve  
There was another man who saw  
That she was beautiful  
A pious vulture of the law  
Who with a gesture of his claw  
Removed the barber from his plate  
Then there was nothing but to wait  
And she would fall  
So soft, so young, so lost and oh so beautiful…"  
"Oh, Mr. Todd…" I had lost my family as well. The compassion I felt was for real.  
"I returned home, Ruby. After fifteen years in a living hell I returned to London, dreaming I might find my family waiting. Instead I found Mrs. Lovett, who told me my loved Lucy poisoned herself and died and that the Judge adopted my daughter, my sweet Johanna…"  
That pain in his beautiful dark eyes was so strong I could almost feel it. I took his hand and caress it, he didn't stop me.  
"Well, I can as well tell you the whole story. Mrs. Lovett makes pies, but the price of meat is far too high. So we have our own enterprise; I kill the people and she makes the pies."  
I looked at Mr. Corlett's body again. The thought of him inside a meat pie made me disgusted and Mr. Todd probably saw that, because he said:  
"But I don't think anyone wants to eat him. I'll tell Mrs. Lovett to burn him instead."  
I nodded silently. I wanted to say something to him, thank him for killing the man I hated and saving my life and especially for that hug. With blushing cheeks and without looking at him I mumbled:  
"Mr. Todd, no one has been this nice to me since my mother was alive. I don't see you as a bad person for killing people, I have lost my family as well and I just saw my own pain in your eyes. I promise I won't tell anyone about what you have told me. Mr. Todd, can I live here with you? I can help you to burn the corps, or whatever you need help with. Please. I have nowhere else to go, and you hug made me feel so safe…"  
He gave me another hug and again I felt warm inside.  
"Dearest Ruby, of course you can live here with me. I promise I won't let anyone hurt you."_


	3. 2  Silly little nit

"More pie, Veruca?"  
"Yes please, ma'am. It was really good."  
I decided not to think about who my Slytherin friend right now was eating. Both she and the Adams brothers seemed to be having a good time, Toby as well. I, Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett only ate some vegetables, tough.  
"Now, tell me something about yourself. Are your parents wizards?"  
"Yes, my mother is a Healer…"  
"Like a doctor, but in the magic world." I added and Veruca nodded.  
"… and my father has a shop.  
"Any brothers or sisters?" Mrs. Lovett kept the conversation going while Sweeney was quiet, as he used to be.  
"Yes, three brothers and one sister. They all go to Hogwarts; my sister Vanessa in Ravenclaw, Victor and Willie in Gryffindor and my youngest brother Wilbur in Slytherin, just like me."  
"You know, I've never really understood that part with the different houses. Could you explain that to me?"  
Veruca explained it all, helped by Toby and the twins. I don't know how much Mrs. Lovett understood, and I stopped listening when they came to the history of Hogwarts. When they were half through, Sweeney realized that he had a costumer and I went upstairs with him.  
"Nice friends you and Toby get in school. How much do they know?"  
"Toby has an easy story to tell people: his parents are dead and he now live with his new mother, Mrs. Lovett. I don't have any easy story, so I told Veruca as little as I possibly could. She knows that Toby and I were saved from the street, I by you and Toby by Mrs. Lovett, that you are a barber and that Mrs. Lovett makes pies…"  
"Well, I guess she knows enough then. It would be sad if I had to kill her…"  
It could have been a joke, but we both knew it wasn't. The life we lived was a life filled of secrets, a life filled of death…  
The man sat down in the chair, unsuspecting, and Sweeney slit his throat. I was so used to all that blood I hardly reacted anymore, only watched it with a sense of indifference. Only sometimes, just in the very moment they stopped shaking and the life disappeared from their faces, I thought about the fact that we just killed a person. A man who never again would talk, think or feel anything, thanks to us. Or to Sweeney, then. But I watched it all, let it happened. I was as guilty as he was.  
"More pie for your friend Veruca, then." Sweeney said and dropped the man's coat after him. I couldn't help laughing. It was all so twisted; Toby and I brought some friends home, Mrs. Lovett made them some meat pies and then Sweeney and I went upstairs to kill a person for the next pie. No, we could never be a normal family. Not even pretend to be. Not as long as Sweeney and I were driven by hate and revenge.  
I knew Mrs. Lovett told Sweeney to forgive and try to forget. I knew she told him to "not destroy the girl as well, she needs a loving parent and not someone who tells her everyone deserves to die". I knew she wanted to marry Sweeney and still hoped that he would love her back.  
_Silly little nit. He never will. He never forgets his Lucy. And I know that, because I'm the only one he lets inside his shell…  
_ When we came back downstairs, the conversation had gone into the dark reputation of Slytherin. Veruca was telling Mrs. Lovett the whole story of Lord Voldemort and how he was defeated.  
"There was a boy, a boy named Harry Potter. They said he was the Chosen One…"  
I had heard that story many times before, and every time I wondered: why did Voldemort kill so many people? What had he been through that made him so evil, made him think that they deserved to die?  
People seemed so horrified when they talked about him, but I could never really agree with them. He killed people. So did Sweeney, and he was not a bad person. He didn't scare me. Then why should Voldemort?  
Mrs. Lovett though the same:  
"Wait, wait. There was a wizard called Voldemort, and he killed people. Why?"  
"What do you mean?" Obviously, Veruca had never got that question before.  
"Why did he kill those people? There has to be a reason, right?"  
Veruca still looked very surprised. "I don't know, I guess he was just evil, and then that's it."  
"No one is born evil." said Sweeney suddenly. "People can be driven to homicide by hate, lost or sorrow, but no one is simply evil."  
"Well… Anyway, there was this boy Harry Potter…"  
"Your costumer never came back downstairs." one of the Adam brothers said to Sweeney.  
"Yes he did. You just missed him."  
"Yes." I nodded. It used to be Toby who noticed such things, and we used to be able to convince him that he was wrong.  
"Strange, I'm so sure he didn't…"  
"But he did. Now eat your pie, boy."  
"OK, Mr. Todd."  
"So Voldemort died?" Mrs. Lovett wanted to hear the end of the story.  
"Yes, he did. Fortunately for all of us. Now the world is safe, but the kids in Slytherin still have to stand this dark reputation. One of the boys in Slytherin, our class, is actually the son of a man who went to school with Harry Potter. But," she laughed, "it doesn't seems like they were very close friends. According to my cousin, the daughter of Harry Potter closest friend's brother and my mother's little sister, they were more like… enemies. And now Felicity is dating young Malfoy, stupid girl…"  
"That's all very well, dear, but I still don't understand why Voldemort was that evil and killed that many people."  
"Well…" Veruca thought about it. "No one really knows, ma'am. But I can always ask my mother, or Roxane, or someone else who has parents who were close to Harry Potter…"  
"I heard he had a tough childhood." said one of the twins, I think it was Brian. "He grow up in an orphanage, misunderstood and lonely."  
"Well, maybe that could be one of the reasons, then." said Veruca. "If you want me to, Mrs. Lovett, I can do some research and then send you an owl with the complete story of Voldemort. " Obviously my friend was happy for having someone who was that interested in her stories.  
"That would be nice, Veruca. The things you told me about Voldemort made me very interested."  
Veruca smiled. Sweeney realized he had another customer and went upstairs.  
"Do you need my help, Swe... Mr. Todd?" We decided that long ago, he allowed me to call him by first name but never in front of Toby and Mrs. Lovett.  
"No thank you, Ruby. You should stay here and talk to your friend."  
I nodded. Veruca seemed to had got tired of Voldemort and instead started asking about me and my background, something I didn't appreciate at all.  
"So, Ruby, how come you ended up here? Your parents died?"  
"Yes, they did."  
"And Mr. Sweeney Todd saved you from the street? How did you meet him?"  
"Veruca… I really don't wanna talk about this…"  
She sighted. "I've told you everything about myself, Ruby. Everything from when I was five and accidently killed Vanessa's Puffskein to my impossible love to James Potter in Gryffindor. I want something in return. I want your trust. What is it that you're hiding!"  
"It's all very complicated…"  
"You know, I think I'm gonna go upstairs and ask Mr. Todd."  
Mrs. Lovett reacted immediately.  
"I don't think that's a very good idea, Veruca. Mr. Todd has a costumer and doesn't want to be disturbed. You better wait for him down here."  
"No. I'm going upstairs. Right now." She stood up. Mrs. Lovett's brown eyes met mine and I felt it like I fell down into that great black pit in the world Sweeney used to talk about. If Veruca found out, it would mean the end for her. Sweeney would have to kill her.  
"Veruca, no!" But it was too late, she was already half the way up. All I could do was to run after her.  
The first thing she saw when she opened the door was how Sweeney slit the throat of an old man with white beard. I took a deep, quivering breath and closed the door properly behind me. Stood there to block her way out.  
Sweeney reacted immediately. Before Veruca had the time to ran, or even to scream, he held a razor against her throat.  
"Scream and I'll kill you." he hissed. Veruca was pale as death and turned to me, like if she was looking for help. When I didn't reacted at all, only stood there with tears in my eyes, she hissed as well, terrified to scream and give Sweeney a reason to kill her:  
"Ruby? What's going on?"  
I turned to Sweeney. "Do you mind if I tell her?"  
He sighted. "No. Tell her, I guess I'll have to kill her anyway. Stupid girl, why did you have to ran upstairs?"  
"You wanted the truth, Veruca. I'll give it to you. It's not pretty, not any happy story like the ones from your childhood. But it's the truth about me, Ruby Todd."  
And I told her everything. My loving mother, her last screams, my father who wouldn't hesitate to kill me as well if I came back, Mr. Corlett and the way he raped me. And then, my first meeting with Sweeney. Everything. My tears, the razor against my throat and his hug. How it felt like I was brought back to life, how I found my soul mate that day.  
Then Sweeney told his own story, and his standard statement that everyone deserved to die. Veruca didn't say a single word during all this. When we were finished, all she did was to shake her head (as much as she could, with Sweeney's razor against her throat).  
"Seriously… This can't be true. I know you were hiding something, Ruby, but all this… It's insane. Does the other ones know?"  
"Toby doesn't, we thought it was better to save him from the tragical life of his adoptive sister. And, besides, he would have run to the police if he had known the truth about Sweeney. Mrs. Lovett does, that's why she tried to stop you from running upstairs. She makes the pies…" I guessed I had o tell Veruca that part as well.  
I didn't think she could get any paler, but she did. "So… you mean…?"  
"The pie you just had was vicar. A poor bugger who no one ever missed." said Sweeney in normal conversational tone. Veruca looked like she wanted to throw up.  
Tears were now falling from my eyes. I know what Sweeney had to do, and there was nothing to do about it. My friend Veruca would soon be gone forever.  
When I started to think about what it would be like, coming back to Hogwarts without her, I started to sob. It hurt so much inside me.  
Veruca looked terrified.  
"Ruby! Are you just gonna stand there and let him kill me? I'm your friend, Ruby! I trusted you!"  
"I'm sorry, Veruca…" I hid my face in my hands and waited for the slitting. But it never came.  
"Ruby, this girl has a family, doesn't she?"  
I slowly removed my hands, looked at Sweeney. Nodded. "Yes. A mother, a father, three brothers and a sister."  
"Then we have a problem. People will miss her."  
"Yes! That's right, my family will miss me if I'm not back tomorrow! And all my friends in school, my teachers, my cousins, my owl…"  
"Shut up." Sweeney hissed in a warning tone of voice and Veruca fell silent. I was thinking intensely. Her family wasn't the only problem. There were three boys downstairs who would be very wondering if she didn't come back. And even if Sweeney killed Luke and Brian as well, that would only give us another wondering family. And poor Toby. Mrs. Lovett would never let Sweeney harm him, and if he killed her as well…  
_It's all a black spiral of death. Is it never going to end?  
_I decided to tell Sweeney about my thought. "Luke and Brian are a problem. They will be very wondering if Veruca doesn't come back. And if we kill them, Toby will be wondering. And if we kill him, Mrs. Lovett will be very upset. We can't go on like this, Sweeney."  
"You're right, girl. But still, we can't have your friend running around and telling people what we are doing up here."  
"I'm not gonna tell anyone. I swear to God I won't. Trust me." Veruca only seemed to be more and more desperate. "Please. I promise."  
I saw that Sweeney had a hard time; trusting people was not actually one of the things he did best. But he had no choice. He put his razor down, sighted and let go of Veruca.  
"Fine, then. But if you ever tell a single, living creature about anything of this, I swear I will kill you. Do you understand that?"  
Veruca nodded, too shocked to say a single word. Myself, I didn't know if I wanted to cry or laugh. I gave Sweeney a big, loving hug before we went downstairs, the all three of us.  
Mrs. Lovett most have been really surprised when she saw that Veruca was still alive, but she didn't show it with a single part of her face.  
"Well, as I told you, Veruca love, Mr. Todd was hiding absolutely nothing up there! Now, I'd love to hear more about your friend Felicity and her date!"  
We sat there for a couple of hours. Veruca didn't stay for the night, as we had decided. She said she had to go home immediately because her brother was ill.  
I offered myself to follow her to the Diagon Alley, where she could use the Floo Network to get home, and she reluctantly said yes. Mrs. Lovett insisted on following as well, and Veruca obviously thought that she was hiding a razor in her dress bodice since she kept at least two meters distance to her.  
"I know you are shocked, Veruca, but you have to have some understanding for poor Mr. Todd as well." Mrs. Lovett finally said. "He's been through so much, and…"  
"And that gives him the right to kill people?"  
"Veruca, it's not that easy. If you just listen to me, I…"  
"Mr. Todd is a homicidal maniac." She said with hate in her eyes. "And you are just pathetic and weak who keep protecting him. And you, Ruby, you're a complete psychopath. Stay away from me!"


	4. 3  Grow warm in my hand

_Thank you, from the bottom of my hearts, to Saphire Bethany Stacy Skyle and Erica Lovett for your reviews to this story. This chapter is for you, my friends.  
/LeaJailbird_

I had imagined what it would be like to return to Hogwarts without Veruca, but at the King Cross Station I started to wonder if wouldn't have been less painful than to return _with_ her.  
She didn't even look at me when we meet at Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Just grabbed Felicity's arm and walked past me, whispering something. The only world I heard was "psychopath" but it was more than enough. It burned like fire.  
"Just ignore her, love. She doesn't deserve your friendship. I'm sure you can find other friends, much better than her."  
I wanted to believe the same. Wanted it so badly. I hugged Mrs. Lovett tight and whispered "Thank you, I love you". It had become easier since the first time I left London to go to Hogwarts, but saying goodbye at the station still hurt inside of me. And nothing was as wonderful as coming home for holiday, seeing Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney wait for me and Toby at the platform. Even Sweeney used to smile a little when I ran into his arms.  
Now, he certainly didn't. When Toby walked over to a group of Hufflepuff students, Sweeney put a hand on my shoulder.  
"Ruby, if that girl bothers you, or if she tells anyone the truth about you and me…"  
"Mr. T, you're not gonna kill an innocent little girl, are you?" Mrs. Lovett suddenly looked very upset. "Remember she has a family, and if you…"  
Sweeney gave her a warning look and she fell silent. He turned to me again. "Keep me updated. Will you?"  
I nodded. "I'll send you an owl, once a week. I promise. Goodbye, Mr. Todd. Goodbye, Mrs. Lovett."

Since I couldn't stand the way they were looking at me, I didn't even try to sit in the same compartment as Veruca and Felicity. Neither did I feel like sitting with Toby and his Hufflepuff friends.  
_This is my sister, Ruby. She doesn't have any friends, obviously cause she's a psychopath, so I have to take care of her. Can you stand pretending to be nice to her during this train journey?  
_I wanted to be alone. I didn't have any friends, I didn't belong anywhere. I tried to find an empty compartment, but they were all full. All the students at Hogwarts had gone home for Christmas holiday and were now on their way back. Laughing with their friends, talking about silly things, living lives without secrets. Without death as a constant follower.  
When I passed all the compartments for the fourth time, wondering if I should lower me to going and sit with Toby and his friends, the door to one of them opened.  
"I saw you walking back and forth in the corridor. You can sit here with us if you want to." A red head Gryffindor girl in my form smiled to me. I guessed she was one of the Weasley Cousins (there seemed to be hundreds of them, all with the same red hair)._  
_I didn't have anything to lose. So I smiled back, a shy smile, and followed the girl into the compartment.  
She sat there with a dark girl and a boy with black hair and glasses. Probably not Weasley cousins, or were they? I didn't have to wonder too long, because the red head girl soon introduced them all to me:  
"I'm Rose, Rose Weasley. This is Albus Potter and Roxanne Weasley, they are my cousins. What's your name?"  
"Ruby Todd." I smiled another shy smile and scanned the dark girl. So, this was the famous cousin of Veruca's. She didn't look like her at all. This girl was short and curvy with dark skin, dark eyes and black hair. How could they possibly be cousins?  
"You are in Slytherin with Veruca, right?" Roxanne asked as if she had read my thoughts.  
I nodded. "Yes." Then I couldn't help saying it: "You are not very alike for being cousins."  
"Oh, please don't tell me Veruca has told you that cousin story?" Roxanne Weasley sighted, I mostly felt confused. Cousin story?  
"Veruca Paige is NOT my cousin! She happens to be the daughter to one of my mother's best friends from Hogwarts, Darina Benton. Our mothers used to be really close friends, and so did Veruca and I. We have grown up like cousins, yes, but that was before she became an irritating little brat. Now, she only hangs after me for information about James. And she tells everyone we are cousins. She drives me crazy. If it's not too late, avoid her. She's mean, manipulative and never cares about anyone but herself."  
It all fell into place. And, suddenly I was hit by a thought: It's not my fault. A true friend would have accepted me and Sweeney. But Veruca was… an irritating little brat. I loved that thought so much that I wanted to sit and just _think it_ for the whole journey. But I wouldn't. I would sit right there and talk to the Gryffindor students.  
"Veruca and I used to be friends. But then, a thing happened…" I decided to take a chance. I couldn't tell them about Sweeney and the way he killed people, but I could tell them about the way Veruca let me down.  
"The thing is, I have a really sad background. My parents are dead and I now live with a man who is… not like my new father, more like my best friend, anyway with him and my foster brother Toby Lovett in Hufflepuff and his mother, it's all very complicated. And I really don't like to talk about my background, my parents and such things. So I knew Veruca for four years without telling her anything about myself, but this Christmas she kind of forced me to tell her everything. And she didn't accept me and my family, so she turned her back against me. She is the one who avoids ME."  
I was shocked myself about how much I just had told these people; Gryffindor students I didn't know at all. But it actually felt good to tell them this. Not at all like the way it felt to tell Veruca about Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett, more like the way it felt the first time I met Sweeney and told him about my mother. Like I could trust them, even if I didn't know them. The way Rose had opened the door and invited me, the way Roxanne had told me to avoid Veruca… They were nice people. Nice Gryffindor students.  
_Real friends…  
_"Stupid bitch. You should be glad to get rid of her." said the boy, Albus. "She has been hanging after me for information about James as well. What's so special about him anyway? He has been teasing me since my first day at Hogwarts."  
"Albus is right." added Roxanne. "You can get much better friends at Hogwarts. There has to be nice girls even in Slytherin, right?"  
"Otherwise you can be our friend, Ruby." said Rose and smiled a warm smile.  
"Didn't your father tell you to not get friends with Slytherins?" teased Roxanne.  
"No, he only told me to avoid Scorpius. And to be better than him at every test we have in school."  
"Sounds very much like Uncle Ron, yes." Roxanne laughed. "My father told me the same thing, though."  
I took a deep breath, looked into Rose's brown eyes and said: "I would love to be your friend, Rose."

The memory of our little chat at the train was what kept me alive the following weeks. I could handle to be alone in school; to work by myself in the classes when everybody else where in pairs with someone, to spend the breaks in the library or in the owl tower, waiting for another letter from home, but I couldn't stand the way Veruca and Felicity were whispering about me. Or the way they left the common room if I happened to sit down at the same table as them.  
And one evening, in the dormitory, they went too far. Felicity decided to talk to me for the first time in three weeks:  
"Do I really dare to sleep in the same room as you, what if you kill me and bake me into a pie? This is insane; someone should go to the police. What's the punishment for murder in the muggle world; hanging?"  
I didn't answer. I just ran out from the dormitory, down the stairs and out of the common room before anyone had the chance to see my tears.  
They knew and it was just a matter of time before one of them went straight to a man like Judge Turpin and told him the whole story.  
_Hanging. Oh God, no!  
_Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett wouldn't have a chance, they would both be hanged. And me and Toby... we were lucky if we even were placed at an orphanage. Otherwise it was back to the street, or someplace worse...  
I sat down in the owl tower and cried, suddenly terrified to lose the only people I really loved in this world. Then I remember my promise, grabbed a feather pen and wrote a short message with my hand still shaking from sobs.

_She has told Felicity everything. Felicity said someone should go to the police; the punishment for murder is hanging.  
I'm terrified, Sweeney. If they hang you, they can hang me as well. I won't let that happen. I love you.  
Ruby Todd_

I picked a reliable looking Tawny Owl, whispered "Fly to Fleet Street, as fast as you can" and let it away. I knew Sweeney would read it tonight; he didn't use to sleep much. Neither did I, without him by my side.

_I had been crying in my sleep since I watched my mother die, I hardly thought about it anymore. But that first night in Fleet Street, someone was finally there to comfort me.  
I saw my mother again, blood all over her face. This time I was hiding behind the coach, wanting so badly to help her but too frightened to let my father see me. Her screams echoed inside my head, mixed up with my own sobs.  
"No, please! No!"  
Then I suddenly felt a pair of strong arms lift me up, tighten me into an embrace and laying me down next to a warm body.  
"Hush, hush. It's only a dream. You are safe here. I will protect you."  
When I slowly woke up and opened my eyes, I was laying next to Mr. Todd in his bed. And those eyes I looked into, they weren't the eyes of a murder who had slit hundreds of throats. They were the eyes of the loving father I had never had.  
"Mr. Todd, I..."  
"Sweeney. You can call me Sweeney, but not in front of Toby or Mrs. Lovett. Is that alright?"  
I nodded, trying to dry my tears. "Sweeney... Thank you..."  
I slept in his embrace all that night, and all the nights after that one. The nightmares didn't go away, but they all seemed far less horrible with him beside me. Every time I cried, he was there. I realised that I loved him, that I didn't want to live anymore if he wasn't there._

I had gone through the last four years at Hogwarts without sleeping at all. Every night I had been lying in my bed, pretending to sleep, until Veruca and Felicity fell asleep. Then I had spent the night with reading in the Common Room, writing essays or practicing spells I hadn't had the time for in the day, taking walks around the castle or writing letters home. I used to be tired in the days, yes, but the thought of lying in a bed without Sweeney next to me, all alone with my nightmares, was enough to make me stay awake another night. And during my first years, I learned some spells that replaced the sleep I had missed with fake one. Or simply made me alert enough to pass another Transfiguration test.  
I waited in the Owl Tower for five hours, and then the Tawny Owl finally returned. It was holding one of Sweeney's razors and a short message:

_Do what you have to, Precious. I love you too.  
Sweeney_

I picked up Sweeney's little friend, held it to the sky. Felt it grow warm in my hand.  
"See this one shine,  
How he smiles, in the light  
My friend, my faithful friend..."  
I understood why Sweeney loved his razors so much. Holding one of them in my hand made me feel strong, like no one could ever hurt me again.  
"Al right, you sir? How about a shave? Come and visit, your good friend Ruby. You sir, too sir? Welcome to the grave!" The owl I had pointed the razor at gave me an injured sight and flew out in the night. I sighted and went back to the dormitory.

First, I walked over to Felicity's bed. Watched her strawberry blonde hair over the pillow, thought about those brown eyes I knew where hiding behind her eyelids.  
She wasn't like Veruca at all. Veruca was a selfish, manipulative and mean little brat, Felicity was... impressionable, silly and naive, but never mean.  
I put the razor down, took up my wand. Whispered:  
"Felicity, my friend... You will forget everything Veruca has told you about me from after Christmas and on. You are my friend and I am yours. _Obliviate_"  
I watched her sleep, with a sense of sadness about what I knew was about to come. Then I walked over to Veruca's bed, took up the razor again.  
"Now then, my friend  
Now to your purpose  
Patient, enjoy it  
Revenge can't be taken in haste..."  
_Revenge for what? For refusing to be friends with a girl who can slit her throat in any moment?  
I'm sorry, Veruca. I didn't want it to end this way, but you give me no choice. Sweeney is all I have and I will do anything to protect him.  
_I watched her face one last time, whispering a silent goodbye. Then I took a deep, quivering breath. And slit her throat._  
_


	5. 4  Home, and we're together

_Hi darlings. I'm sorry it took so long time, but, well, you're writers, you know what it's like ;)  
I haven't checked the grammar as properly as I use to, but I hope it's OK. Enjoy __  
/Lea Jailbird_

I tried to ignore the owl for as long as I possibly could, but when it started to step around in my breakfast I sighted and took the letter.

Ruby!  
How could you! You have killed a little girl, your friend, you have left a whole family to miss her!  
I have tried to tell Mr. Todd to be a better role model for you, but he is gonna destroy you with all this killing. What you need the most is a loving parent, and I think you should…

I didn't read more of it. Underneath the table, I crumpled it up and set it on fire with a spell from last week's Charms class. If there was anything I didn't need right now, it was to read a letter where Mrs. Lovett blamed Sweeney for the fact that I had killed Veruca.  
_Better role model? And that should be you, Mrs. Lovett? I don't have any parents and I certainly don't have any good role models in my life, all I have is a sad life with death as a constant follower. What are you expecting from Ruby Todd?  
_"Todd, there is another owl for you." A boynamed Zander Trenton said and brought me back to reality. I hardly knew Trenton, but at least he didn't have anything against me. I nodded and took the other letter, fearing another berating from Mrs. Lovett. But it wasn't.

Ruby, whatever Mrs. Lovett just wrote you: don't listen to it. You did what you had to do and it's nothing more with that. Life hasn't been kind to any of us two, so why should we be kind back?  
Sweeney

I read it again and again, until I was missing him so much that I almost cried. Then I heedfully fold it and put it into my pocket.  
"You liked this letter more than the last one?" Trenton must have seen me setting the letter from Mrs. Lovett on fire.  
I nodded. This was the second breakfast without Veruca, and all the Slytherins in my form were still in shock. Poor Felicity had been crying for two days now, and since she obviously had been accepted by the Malfoy family, Scorpius didn't hesitate to comfort her.  
No one comforted me. I hadn't felt so alone since I was living in the streets of London, without a single person in this world to care about me. The teachers had asked me a lot of questions in order to investigate the murder of course, but no one was asking me about how I felt. One single hand on my shoulder and a friendly "how are you, Miss Todd?" would have meant so much to me, even if I couldn't tell them exactly WHY I was feeling worse than anyone else.  
Did Sweeney feel this way every time? Or is it possible to kill so many people that you reach a point when you don't care anymore?  
It was easier for Sweeney, he was killing strangers. People who no one would miss. I have killed a girl I once considered to be my friend, left three boys and one girl to miss their sister and a man and a woman to miss their daughter.  
Veruca's youngest brother, Wilbur, was in Slytherin with us and I could hear him crying although we were sitting in different nooks of the House Table. He was a second year, hardly more than a child, and I had killed his sister. I was doomed. Destroyed, forever. There is no way back from the first murder…  
Just when I was going to read Sweeney's letter once more, just to make myself feel a little bit less horrible, our headmaster professor Kearney stood up at the table of honour and the whole hall went silent.  
"Dear students. As you all know, a young Slytherin student named Veruca Paige was tragically murdered in her dormitory two days ago."  
Felicity sobbed loudly somewhere to my left and I braced myself in order not to leave the hall. The Memory Speech Kearney held two days ago was bad enough.  
But, to my big surprise, what he said next made me happier than I had been in a very long time:  
"We still don't have any answer to who did this and why, and I'm afraid we can't have you here as long as we can't guarantee your safety. The Hogwarts Express will take you home two o'clock today, your parents and guardians have been informed. You will receive an owl with further information as soon as we have any to give you. Thank you."  
_Thank you, thank you so much. _I needed Sweeney by my side and I needed him right now. I couldn't wait to get off the train at King's Cross Station and run into his arms. Everything would feel so much better as soon as he was by my side.  
"You liked to hear that, didn't you?" Zander Trenton again. That boy was starting to make me nervous.  
"Yes." I didn't have anything to lose though; I could actually be polite to him. "I miss my family."  
"Yes, so do I. I think we all need to come home and get over the shock. You were close to Paige?"  
_No, she was a selfish, mean and manipulative little brat who only liked me when it suited her. You know the thing is, my only true friend in this world kills people, they call him the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and when Veruca found out about that she gave me no choice. I killed her, Zander. I killed my class mate and former friend. Cause I'm a murderer.  
_"Pretty close, yes. But Felicity was her best friend."  
I was so deadly tired of pretending and that made me long for Sweeney even more. He was the only one in this world who knew the true me.

Toby refused to be closer to me than what was absolutely necessary. My worst fear was that he suspected me for killing Veruca and if that was the case, I didn't want to talk to him until we were back in Fleet Street and Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney could back me up. So that was why I didn't mind when he kept avoiding me.  
It became a problem on the train home, though. I couldn't sit in the same compartment as Toby and his friends and I was deathly tired of all the Slytherins in my form, especially the crying Felicity and Scorpius who kept comforting her. And the compartment where Rose was, in that one all the six Gryffindor students in the fourth year were. I couldn't just walk in there and pretend like nothing, I was a Slytherin and our houses had been in a fight during the last hundred years. I sighted, prepared to walk past it and look for a free compartment once again, when I suddenly realised: Gryffindor kids were not like Slytherins at all. If they didn't want me there, they would tell me. And then I would leave. Nothing worse could happen. I had already killed a person, why should I fear walking into a compartment filled with Gryffindors?  
So I took a deep breath and opened the door. Looked straight into my Gryffindor friend's beautiful brown eyes and said:  
"Hi Rose. Do you mind if I sit here with you?"  
"Ruby!" Before I understood what happened, she gave me a hug. "Of course you can sit here with us!"  
And suddenly I forgot everything about how angry Mrs. Lovett probably was with me, how much Toby probably suspected, what I horrible person I was who had killed my friend and even how much I missed Sweeney. Cause that hug was for real. Rose Weasley was happy to see me, Rose Weasley wanted me here. Rose Weasley was my friend.  
I sat down by her side and she introduced me to the other students in the compartment.  
"This is Ruby, my friend in Slytherin. You've already met my cousins Albus and Roxanne." I nodded and they both smiled to me, filled me with warmth. "This is Flynn Addison, Takeo Aki and Brownyn Colby."  
I smiled shyly. Flynn Addison was a skinny boy with ash-blonde hair and nervous eyes, Takeo Aki was his right opposite; a muscular Asian with warm eyes and an inviting smile. Brownyn Colby was a pretty girl with chestnut curls and soft face features.  
"You were in the dormitory when Paige was killed, right?" she said. "Do you know who did it? Did you notice anything suspicious?"  
"Don't you think that's a rude thing to ask, Brownyn?" Albus hissed to her. "Ruby has been through enough already, losing one of her best friends..."  
"We weren't that close friends." I interrupted him. For some reason it didn't bother me to talk about Veruca. Not with Rose and her friends. "Felicity, the third Slytherin girl in my form, was her best friend and I have never been close to any of them. I just haven't had anyone else to hang out with. And I wasn't in the dormitory that night." I repeated the story I had told the investigating teachers: "I couldn't sleep, I don't use to sleep very well, so I went to the Owl Tower to send a letter home. When I sat down to wait for an answer, I fell asleep and didn't wake up until next morning. Then I went back to the Common Room and it was all chaos. "  
Colby looked disappointed, she had probably been hoping for some thrilling details. Albus looked at me with compassion in his eyes, though. A compassion I neither wanted or deserved, so that was why I was thankful when Takeo Aki changed the subject:  
"Do you think they will have to close the school? Even if they find the murderer, this story won't give them too good reputation..."  
"I bet that little skunk Malfoy will tell his bigwig father everything about how terrified his girlfriend is and make him force the ministry to close the school." Roxanne muttered bitterly. "I know everything about the Malfoy family and they are all rotten."  
"I think you are a bit hard." Rose said reproving. "Just because our parents hated his father, _we _don't have to hate _him. _And, besides: Uncle Harry saved Mr. Malfoy's life. Maybe he changed after that. Maybe Scorpius is a really nice boy. You don't even know him. You shouldn't judge people in that way, Roxy."  
I didn't tell them that he actually was a muggle hating freak; cause the way Rose was so totally accepting, open-minded and unprejudiced made me love her even more.  
_What if it would have been her, and not Veruca? Would she had been able to handle the truth?  
No, Ruby, that's wishful thinking. Stop it; it's not good for you._

Three hundred families were waiting at the platform, but I saw them as soon as I got off the train. Mrs. Lovett looked indeed very upset and said something to Sweeney, who was ignoring her totally. All he cared about was to watch out for me in the huge crowd of Hogwarts students.  
"Sweeney!" I shouted. "Sweeney!"  
When I finally was in his embrace again, I wanted to never let go.  
"Ruby, my precious..." he mumbled.  
"Sweeney..." I mumbled. "I have missed you so much."  
_Well, I've come home  
To find you waiting  
Home, and we're together  
And we'll do wonders  
Won't we?_  
When I finally let go of Sweeney and was going to hug Mrs. Lovett, I realised that she and Toby had already left the platform.  
"Is she very angry with me?" I asked lowly.  
Sweeney sighted. "Yes. She's probably gonna give you a good scolding as soon as she gets rid of Toby."  
"I had to do it, and she knows that. She would have liked hanging better?" Suddenly I felt angry. I had done it because I had no other choice, because I wanted to protect my loved ones.  
"I tried to tell her, but she won't listen. Obviously she has no problem with me killing hundreds of strangers and her baking them into pies, but as soon as you kill one single person because you have no choice..." He sighted again. "I'm gonna take this fight with you, Ruby. Don't worry."  
I gave him another hug. I was back home, in the world where I belonged, and everything was going to be alright now. Sweeney was here.  
Then I suddenly realised that me and Sweeney were standing next to what should have been a major part of the Weasley family. There were Rose and a read head Gryffindor boy in the second form who I guessed was her brother, talking to a read head man who the boy was a perfect copy of and a beautiful woman who Rose looked very much like. They couldn't be any other ones than their parents. Next to them were Albus and his brother and sister: James Potter who was indeed a handsome fifth year student, and another read head second year I think was named Lisa or Lily. They were talking to another read head woman and a man with raven hair and glasses.  
Rose smiled when she realised that we were watching them: me with curiosity and Sweeney with suspicion.  
"Well, this is the Weasley clan. My brother Hugo and our parents, Mr. Ronald Weasley and Mrs. Hermione Weasley. And then Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, their surname is actually Potter as you might know, James Potter 2th and Lily Potter 2th. You already know Albus."  
Eight Weasley/Potter faces were now looking at us and it made both me and Sweeney feel terribly uncomfortable. When I looked at Rose as realised it was time for a proper introduction, though. I turned to my other half.  
"Sweeney, this girl is Rose Weasley. She's in my form but in another house. She's probably the only friend I've got in school." I turned to Rose again, wishing that her family could stop looking at us.  
"Rose, this is Mr. Sweeney Todd. He's my adoptive father, my best friend and my other half."  
"A pleasure, Miss Weasley." Sweeney shook her hand and Rose smiled, suddenly shy.  
"Hi... Your Ruby is a very nice girl."  
"Indeed she is. She deserves the best of friends."  
Then we were interrupted by Mrs. Weasley:  
"Hi! It's so nice to finally meet that Ruby we've heard so much about!" whereupon she gave me a hug. Pretty much of a shock, it was. I couldn't help wondering what Rose had told her mother about me that could make her want to meet me so much.  
Mr. Weasley shook hands with both me and Sweeney, and then his wife continued:  
"We would love you to join us for dinner some day, Ruby. What do you say about Friday? Of course you are welcome as well, Mr. Todd."  
Sweeney nodded rigidly. Myself, I couldn't help smiling.  
"I would love to come. Thank you, Mrs. Weasley."  
"Who could have guessed our Rose should make friends with a Slytherin girl? This one is alright, Rosie, but don't make it a habit. You can never be sure about Slytherin kids, most of them are usually muggle haters."  
"RON!" Mrs. Weasley started to scold her husband, I was still smiling. I liked the Weasley family.

Someone who wasn't smiling at all was Mrs. Lovett.  
"Toby dear, could you go to the grocer? I need some things for dinner tonight."  
As soon as we heard the door slam, she petty much repeated what she had written in the letter I set on fire.  
"How could you, Ruby? An innocent little girl, a friend of yours!  
´"She wasn't that innocent." I tried to defend myself. "You remember she was here, and happened to run upstairs when Mr. Todd was slitting someone's throat? She told Felicity. They started to talk about that the punishment for murder is hanging. It made me terrified."  
Mrs. Lovett sighted. "You're a witch for Christ sake, Ruby! Isn't there any magic spell that could have made her forget everything or something like that? Why did you have to kill her?"  
The insight sank into me like a frozen stone: I could had used _obliviate _to Veruca like I did to Felicity. I haven't even thought about that. And the worst thing was: I knew why. Because Sweeney sent me that razor. Because _his _only solution to everything was to kill people.  
And Mrs. Lovett knew that too. She turned to Sweeney:  
"Look what you have done to that poor little girl! You have destroyed her, filled her with your own hate! What she needs is a loving parent, a good role model, and..."  
That was enough. I refused to stand there and hear Mrs. Lovett blame everything on Sweeney.  
"Good role model? And that should be you, Mrs. Lovett? Huh? You're baking people into pies! Sweeney has a reason for hating the world, his wife and daughter were taken from him, but what's your reason? High prizes of meat?  
I killed Veruca because she was a selfish and mean little brat, and I'm enough filled with my own hate already, thank you! I watched my mother be beaten to death, and I still hear her screams in the nightmares I have every night! Sweeney is the only one who understands me, and I don't care if he kills people or not: I love him!"  
For one happy second, I thought Mrs. Lovett froze because of something I had said. Then I realised the horrible truth: Toby was standing in the door way. Looking terrified, probably because of what he just had heard.


	6. 5  Demons are prowling everywhere

_We got into a discussion about houses on the train, our very first day. Toby and I didn't know much, since we were what the wizard world politely called "Muggle-borns", so Veruca and the twins were more than happy to explain it all to us:  
"You put the Hat on, and then it tells you in which house you belong." said Brian. "They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Gryffindor stands for courage and chivalry. Ravenclaw takes the clever kids, and Hufflepuff takes the hard working and honest ones."  
"Then we have Slytherin, where all the dark wizards come from." Luke added, whereupon he and his brother told me and Toby a long story about a person named Lord Voldemort. To be honest, I didn't listen that much. I was too nervous about what would come, and I still didn't know how I was going to survive without Sweeney until Christmas.  
"Wait, you make it sound like all __Slytherins__ have to be evil. They don't. I know many very nice __Slytherins__, my mother was in Slytherin herself."  
"I didn't mean it that way. I was just trying to explain to Ruby and Toby…"  
Ruby and Toby. I loved how our names fitted together.  
"… this dark reputation, and why people maybe are worried to be sorted into Slytherin."  
"Well, I'm not." Veruca said coldly. "Unlike other ones, I will be accepted by my parents no matter which house I'm in."  
An awkward silence followed, since none of the Adams twins knew how to answer that. Instead they turned to me and Toby:  
"So, which house do you think you will be sorted into? Honestly, I have no idea for myself, but…"  
"… both our parents were __Hufflepuffs__, so maybe it will be the same for us."  
"I don't care, as long as the other students in the house I'm in are nice to me." Toby said.  
"And you, Ruby?"  
_Was I chivalry that night, hiding while my mother was beaten to death? Was I clever when I followed Mr. Corlett home and let him rape me? Was it honest of me to keep lying to Toby about Mrs. Lovett's pies or Sweeney's disappearing costumers all the time?  
But I did it because I loved Sweeney. So I couldn't be that evil either.  
_"Most likely: none of them."_

_The Hat sang for us. About a war won nineteen years ago, heroes never to be forgotten and of curse about the houses. I got more and more nervous, standing there with thirty other more or less frightened first-year students.  
__"Adams, Brian!"  
The Hat fell down over his grey eyes and the whole hall fell silent. Then the Hat yelled:  
"HUFFLEPUFF!" and Brian ran over to one of the big tables during applauds and hoorays.  
"Adams, Lukas!" Luke was sorted into Hufflepuff just like his brother. Then there were two Gryffindors, Flynn Addison and Takeo Aki, and a Slytherin, Delroy Alfort.  
_"The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be something like your family within Hogwarts…"  
_The house I was sorted into would determine what my seven years here would be like. My knees were shaking and I missed Sweeney more than ever.  
"Baldwin, Kevin!"  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
It seemed like an eternity. A girl named Brownyn Colby was sorted into Gryffindor, Orian Clark became a Slytherin and a blonde girl I couldn't remember the name of was sorted into Hufflepuff and joined the Adams brothers at the house table. Jonathan Farrell and Morrigan Hall became Ravenclaws, then there was another Hufflepuff girl, a boy who sat on the stool for two minutes before the Hat decided that he was a Ravenclaw, Kaya Loredan in Hufflepuff and then finally:  
"Lovett, Tobias!"  
Toby was so eager to get sorted that he almost fell on his way to the stool with the Hat. When he was sorted into Hufflepuff, I was happy for him. Cause the people in Hufflepuff seemed to be really friendly, and he already knew two of the new first-years. Luke and Brian Adams, who welcomed him when he sat down at the table.  
A pale boy was sorted into Slytherin, a girl with dark curly hair became a Ravenclaw, another Slytherin boy and then:  
"Paige, Veruca!"  
It only took the Hat five seconds to decide that she was a Slytherin as well. I thought about what the Addams twins had told us on the train, tried to remember the story about that dark wizard.  
All Slytherins didn't have to be evil. But still, they were famous for it. And suddenly I wished that I would end up in another house. But I wasn't brave, or clever, or honest, or anything they wanted in the other houses.  
Two other students were sorted without me noticing at all. When I heard "Todd, Ruby!" my entire body was shaking and I tried not to think at all. I still didn't think anything when the Hat fell down over my head and I heard a voice in my ear:  
"Hmm… what have we here? Cunning, oh yes. Willing to break rules and laws as well, in order to protect yourself and your loved ones. Yes, no doubt about it: SLYTHERIN!"_  
_ When I sat down at the Slytherin table, next to Veruca and another girl I didn't know as Felicity yet, I watched Toby smile to his new friends at the Hufflepuff table and then I suddenly knew: this is the end of being like brother and sister. Hufflepuff stands for hard work, honesty and fair play, while Slytherin takes the kids who are "willing to break rules and laws in order to protect their loved ones"._

I thought about that when I turned around to find Toby standing there, terrified after finding out both that I killed Veruca, that Sweeney kills people and that his adoptive mother bakes people into pies. This was the end, for real. The end of everything. There was no turning back and ahead of us lied nothing but death.  
Toby was too frightened even to run. I just stood there, as frozen in shock as he was. Sweeney lifted his razor, as it was his only solution to everything. Mrs. Lovett was the only one who actually reacted.  
"Toby, dear. Come over here and give us a chance to explain."  
"Those pies I have eaten… and Veruca… and the shaving costumers…"  
"Yes, darling. But you won't run to the law, will you? "I could hear the desperation in her voice. "They will hang us all, dear. Even Ruby."  
Toby turned to me and he had nothing but hate and fear in his eyes.  
"You killed Veruca, I knew it! You're a demon!"_  
_I started to cry. "Toby, I'm so sorry… Please, forgive me…"  
_Forgive me for lying to you. Forgive me for not stopping Sweeney when he wants to slit your throat. Forgive me for not being a better sister.  
Toby, I love you…_

In my world, everything was as warm and soft as a summer meadow. The sun caressed my skin as my mother and I were laughing and singing in a world where fear had never existed.  
I let go of my mother's hands as Toby came walking towards me. He was sparkling, finally released from all the pain in the world of the living.  
"Don't cry, sister." He said to me. "We will meet again, I promise. I will be waiting for you when you die."  
"I'm so sorry, Toby. Please forgive me."  
"I forgive you. Take care of Mrs. Lovett when I'm gone, she has been like a mother to me."  
We hugged and he walked away. In the other side of the meadow I could see a man and a woman who had been waiting for fifteen years for their little boy to join them.

I had to believe that he forgave me and that he now was happy with his biological parents, in a place where I could join him after this life. I had to. Otherwise I would break.  
"Ruby? It's over."  
_I can't open my eyes just yet. Can't open them to find my brother lying on the floor, blood all over the room and Sweeney holding the razor that slit his throat…  
_And still his hand on my shoulder was as soft as his voice. I forced myself to look at him. He didn't look like a murderer even now._  
Demons are prowling everywhere, nowadays  
I'll send them howling, I don't care  
I've got ways_  
Indeed there were demons everywhere. But what if those demons were the ones you loved, the only ones who loved you?  
_I killed Veruca, I should be a demon as well. But at long as I feel, I will stay human.  
_Mrs. Lovett was weeping loudly and it didn't take me long to start crying as well. Sweeney held us both until we calmed down. Then he said:  
"It was the only way. I'm sorry." and went upstairs.

Me and Mrs. Lovett buried Toby underneath a tree, not far away from Fleet Street. We said some final words to him, sang a song and cried silently. I didn't let go of Mrs. Lovett's hand even once during the ceremony.  
"Do you think this will ever end?" I asked her on our way home. "Will there be a day when there are no more secrets, no more lies, no more pain, no more death… Or are we doomed, forever?"  
She sighted, looked at me with her brown eyes filled with pain.  
"Oh, Ruby darling. I don't know. But I have to believe there will be, otherwise I will break…  
You know, there was a time when I thought Mr. Todd could feel nothing but hate and sorrow. But then he met you. And I use to think that as long as he has you, there is hope for him. Cause he loves you like a daughter, and a man who loves can't be evil." She sighted again. "I use to dream about that day when all the pain is gone, use to imagine we live down by the sea all of us. Like a happy family. Would you like that?"  
"I would love it, Mrs. Lovett."  
"Nellie. If you use Mr. Todd's first name you can as well use mine."  
"Nellie, then. I love you."

_Ooooh poor little Ruby, she will soon need a hug even more than Sweeney does… 3  
And I don't want to ruin the story by nagging about my grammar, you know you can correct it if you need to (or at least Victoire Delacour does, thank you love 3).  
Rest in peace, Toby. _


	7. 6  Then there was nothing but to wait

When I killed Veruca, her blood spurt all over my face and body. And no matter how many times I washed myself, I could never be clean again. I would always have her blood on my hands.  
But Veruca deserved to die. Toby didn't. Toby deserved a happy life far away from demons like us. With a real family, a family who cared about him more than anything else in this world.  
Me and Nellie were his only family, his mother and sister. And none of us stopped Sweeney from slitting his throat. We let him down.  
_Nothing's gonna harm you, darling  
Not while I'm around…  
_ Sweeney laid down next to me in our bed. Would I ever be able to hold his hands again, knowing that Toby's blood was on them?  
"Ruby? How are you?"  
"Horrible."  
He sighted. "I had to do it, you know that. There was…"  
"What if it had been me?" I interrupted him sharply. "Would you have killed me as well? If I suddenly got tired of this life filled of pain and death and decided to go to the law?"  
"You would never do that, Ruby."  
Of course he was right. No matter how many people he killed, I would always love him. He was my everything. And the thought of losing him was enough to make my want to cry.  
I sighted. "No, of course I wouldn't. But what if?"  
He fell silent for a moment. Then he looked straight into my eyes and said: "Then I would let you do that. I would rather die than hurt you, precious."  
I hugged him tight, sobbing into his chest.  
"Sweeney… I really hate the Judge and all those people who did horrible things to you. You're such a wonderful and caring person and you really don't deserve all this pain…"  
"Neither do you. You're my everything, Ruby."

Meeting that many Weasleys at the platform somewhat made me expect that me and Sweeney were invited to some big family dinner. I honestly wasn't sure if I would have coped meeting all the six siblings of Rose's father, including their spouses and children, so I was relieved when it turned out to be only the closest family of Rose's. Not even her uncle, the famous Harry Potter, was there; just her parents and brother.  
When Mrs. Weasley gave me another hug, it was almost too much for me. She was so sweet, so pure, so innocent and so… normal. She was a loving mother who had never killed anyone, never watched any of her children being killed.  
"I'm really sorry about what happened to your brother, Ruby." She said and I nodded, trying to hold my tears back. I had been crying more than enough already.  
_And though I'll think of you, I guess  
Until the day I die  
I think I miss you less and less  
As every day goes by…  
_"How is his mother?"  
_Horrible, Mr. Weasley. Sweeney and I have always had each other, we're bound together by our tragical life stories and the family members we have lost, but poor Nellie has never had anyone at all. Except for Toby, who she had to keep lying to. And watch having his throat slit.  
_"She will manage. She is strong."

The whole concept of family dinner was totally new to me. When I lived with my parents, me and mother always ate quickly before my father returned home from the pub and started to beat one of us. And in my new family we had hardly ever spent any time together, we had lived our separate lives. Me and Sweeney upstairs and Nellie and… her son… downstairs. It hurt too much to think his name.  
That was why it made me fascinated to see how the Weasley family sat down around a table and talked to each other about politics, Quidditch and the future of Hogwarts while eating. I was suddenly filled with a painful longing that I couldn't really put my finger on. It took me a while to realize that I was longing for a proper family and a normal life. And that I could probably never have any of it.  
Keeping conversations alive wasn't exactly what either me or Sweeney did best, so the Weasleys did the talking.  
"How are you doing in school, Ruby? It's soon time for your OWL, right?"  
"We don't take the OWL until next year, Mum." Rose pointed out.  
"Well, you have to start practicing in time. Which is your favorite subject, Ruby?"  
To be honest I didn't exactly have any favorite subject, but I felt that it wasn't the best thing to say. So I thought for a while and picked a subject I actually used to enjoy:  
"I like Care of Magical Creatures."  
"Oh, that is a nice subject!"  
"As long as you don't have to feed flobberworms, right Hermione?" Mr. Weasley laughed and his wife grimaced.  
"No, I'm happy to get rid of the flobberworms. But I will never forget that beautiful unicorn…"  
"Yeah, the stupid one who hated boys."  
"It didn't! If you would just have…"  
Rose had finished her dinner and turned to me.  
"Do you want to see me room?" I nodded and we went upstairs, leaving poor Sweeney to listen to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's argumentation about that unicorn.

Rose's room was cosy, colourful and covered with bookcases.  
"I love to read." she smiled. "When I was a child, I would rather spend time with a good book than with other kids. Mum says I'm just like her." She laughed softly. "I don't have two best friends like she did, though. I mean, the other Gryffindors in my form are nice, but I spend most of my time at Hogwarts with Albus and Roxanne and that's what I've been doing since we were children. I'm pretty tired of them. That's why I'm really happy that you are here now; you are not like them at all. You're sweet, sensitive and a great listener."  
I blushed. I had never been talking to another girl in this way before, like a normal teenager. All the nice things she said made me nervous, so I changed the subject:  
"How many cousins do you have?"  
"Oh, far too many. My father has one sister, the mother of James, Albus and Lily, and five brothers whereof three have families. The second oldest brother, Charlie, never got married. And the twin brother of Roxanne's father, who her brother is named after, died in the war against Lord Voldemort. Let's see: it's James, Albus and Lily..." she started to count on her fingers, "... Fred and Roxy, Victoire, Dominique and Louis, and then Molly and Lucy. Ten."  
_Lucy. Like Sweeney's lost wife. But probably with red hair, instead of yellow.  
_"God, Ruby, I'm so stupid! Here I am, talking about all my cousins, and you have just lost your brother! It must be terrible!"  
_Toby. Gone. I will never talk to him anymore, never even see him. Gone, forever.  
_As the whole meaning of death once again sunk into me, I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. I sobbed like the frightened little child I still was inside. Rose hugged me, held me until I stopped crying in a way no one but Sweeney had done before.  
"Do you want to talk about it?"  
_I'm dying to. But Rose, my sweet Rose, you're so pure and innocent. I'm not sure I could bear to tell you such a horrible story as mine.  
_"Rose, I've... I've never had a friend like you before. I wish I could tell you the truth, but... It's a horrible story. I've been through horrible things, and done something horrible... You would be terrified if I told you. You wouldn't be my friend if you knew the truth about me..."  
"Oh Rose, I'm sure I would. Anyone can do something horrible. And there aren't many things that terrify me. Ever since I was a little girl, I've heard the stories about Lord Voldemort and the big war and everyone who die, over and over again. I think I know some of them by heart, like the story about how Uncle George's twin brother died."  
_The last time I told a Hogwarts girl my story, it cost her her life. And that was before the murder I committed myself, and that one I had to witness. If Sweeney gets to know that I've told another girl...  
_No, Sweeney would never hurt Rose. Ever.  
"It's a long story. If I tell you in small steps, one part each, and when it becomes too much you tell me to stop?" Not everything at the same time, with a razor against her throat. Never like Veruca.  
Rose nodded. "Whatever you're going to tell me, Ruby, I promise it won't affect our friendship."  
_Well, where do I start?  
_With the barber and his wife. I started to sing:  
"There was a barber and his wife  
And she was beautiful  
A foolish barber and his wife, she was his reason and his life  
And she was beautiful  
And she was virtuous  
And he was...  
Naive  
There was another man who saw, that she was beautiful  
A pious vulture of the law  
Who, with a gesture of his claw  
Removed the barber from his plate  
Then, there was nothing but to wait  
And she would fall  
So soft, so young, so lost  
And oh so beautiful...  
That barber was Sweeney, though his name was Benjamin Barker back then. " I described the living hell Sweeney had been through for fifteen years in Australia, the pain when he finally came back to find that his wife was dead and his daughter taken away from him, and how he began to plan his revenge. Everything was well that long. Rose said exactly the right thing:  
"Oh, poor man. No wonder he has that darkness in his eyes."_  
_I also told her about Nellie, who was waiting for him with his razors. Then, there was this hard part. _  
_"You know... when you go through such things, it affects you. Sweeney is driven by revenge and poisoned by hate against the whole world and all of the mankind; you can see the darkness in his eyes..."_  
Continue, Ruby. She is not like Veruca at all. She is a real friend.  
_I took a deep breath. And then, I said it:  
"He kills people, Rose. You know, he still works as a barber, and when he gets a costumer who no one would miss... he kills them. It's his revenge on the whole human race. "  
Rose didn't look terrified at all. She just nodded silently to confirm that she was still listening, so I decided to go all the way:  
"Mrs. Lovett, or Nellie as I have started to call her now, still makes pies as well. But the prize of meat is really high, and with all the corps from Sweeney's costumers... Well, they got the idea to cooperate..."  
"Uuugh. I'm honestly glad I've never gone for a meat pie at your place. What do they taste like, just because I'm curious?"  
"I've never tried, since I know what is inside..."  
"Well, I don't blame you." She shuddered. "Continue, please."  
"You haven't had enough yet?"  
"No." She actually smiled. "The meat pie part was a bit grouse, I have to admit, but the rest is not worse than many other things I've heard."  
I told her my own story. My mother, my father, Mr. Corlett and how Sweeney saved me from him. Rose hugged me. She had tears in her eyes.  
"Oh, Ruby. I had no idea... I'm... I'm so sorry."  
_I could stop here. While she stills hugs me, feels sorry for me, understands me and Sweeney. It would be so easy to continue being a victim in her embrace, someone who deserves a loving hug...  
_"I wish this was it, but it isn't. It gets worse..."  
"You killed Veruca Paige, didn't you?"  
Just like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And maybe, it was. Suddenly I heard myself that day on the train, when I talked to Rose for the very first time:  
_So I knew Veruca for four years without telling her anything about myself, but this Christmas she kind of forced me to tell her everything. And she didn't accept me and my family, so she turned her back against me.  
_I nodded silently. "There was no other way. She told Felicity, she could have told the whole school any day. The punishment for murder in the muggle world is hanging. I did it to protect Sweeney, because I love him..."  
Rose didn't push me away, just held my tighter and stroked my hair.  
"And your brother?"  
I couldn't hold my tears back any longer. I sobbed in her embrace like a little child.  
"He diii...dn't know a-anything, he was just an i-innocent and sweet little b-boy. But there was no o-other way, Sweeney is so f-filled with hate that he c-can't see any other w-way..."  
"Hush, hush..."  
"Don't you t-think me and S-Sweeney are demons?"  
She sighted. "No dear, I do not. The things you have been through, both of you, could make anyone commit murder. Besides, you did it for love. To protect your adoptive father and soul mate." She sighted again. "It's such a cruel world, isn't it? Poor Mr. Todd. What happened to his daughter, by the way? Pretty Johanna with the yellow hair?"  
"Judge Turpin is still her guardian, as far as I know."  
It was as painful for Sweeney to talk about his wife and daughter as it was for me to talk about my mother. Only during the darkest of nights, when none of us could sleep because of our nightmares, we talked about our families. I told Sweeney about the songs mother used to sing when I couldn't sleep, the soft hands that stroked my forehead and her beautiful smile. And then Sweeney told me about Lucy, his angel, and little Johanna with hair as yellow as gold. Little Johanna who was now a young woman, who Sweeney would never see again...  
"Turpin, is that his name?"  
"Yes. Why?"  
"My cousin, Louis in Ravenclaw, has a friend named Edmund Turpin."


	8. 7  My little dove, my sweet

_There is no Anthony Hope in this story. There never was and there never will be. He doesn't have a purpose here. And, besides, I don't like him xD  
Enjoy, lovies _

On our way home from the Weasleys, I decided to tell Sweeney.  
"Judge Turpin has a son. At Hogwarts. Rose's cousin knows him."  
Sweeney froze. "A son?"  
I nodded. "His name is Edmund. A quiet and withdrawn boy who hates his father. That's all I know."  
"And young Miss Weasley told you that?"  
That look he gave me. Cold, suspicious, watchful. I lowered my head.  
"I told her, Sweeney. Everything. She felt so sorry for both me and you and she really wanted to help. She's going to talk to that Turpin boy when we get back to school, maybe he is our way to both the Judge and Johanna."  
I expected him to be angry with me. To remind me about how it ended up the last time I told anyone our dark story.  
He wasn't. He nodded silently and when I mentioned Johanna's name, his eyes filled with pain.  
"And are you beautiful and pale  
With yellow hair, like her?  
I'd want you beautiful and pale, the way I've dreamed you were  
Johanna…  
And if you're beautiful, what's then  
With yellow hair, like wheat?  
I think we shall not meet again  
My little dove, my sweet  
Johanna…"  
He sighted. "Will I ever be able to tell her who I am? To even look into the eyes of my little girl, with so many people's blood on my hands? Oh Ruby, I just want to protect her from this whole life we're living. So innocent, so pure, so unpolluted and oh so beautiful..."  
That pain in his eyes could almost kill me sometimes. I would do anything if it could make him hurt less.  
"Sweeney... When you are on the very bottom, with no one who cares about you at all, you see things from a different view. Remember when we first met? I didn't care about the killing at all; all I cared about was your warm hug. Johanna has never known her family. And Judge Turpin has probably never been nice to her at all. I'm sure she will accept any parent she can have.  
I will talk to her. Tell her your story, her story and my own. I'm sure she will understand why we kill people, that we aren't demons. I will tell her how much you love her..."  
He actually smiled. A week smile, but still a smile. "I would be nothing without you."

I got an owl the next day, saying it was safe to go back to Hogwarts. Both Sweeney and Nellie followed me to the King Cross Station. I had told Nellie everything about Rose, the Weasley's, the Turpin boy and my plan to talk to him. She hugged me tighter than ever before, never wanted to let me go.  
"Promise you'll be careful, Ruby darling. Promise me you will return home safe and sound."  
Poor Nellie. She had already lost her son and I guess I was everything she had left.  
"I promise you, Nellie. Everything will be fine. Don't worry. Please don't. "  
Toby should have been here now. To hug her and promise to send her an owl every day.  
_Oh, Toby... Will it ever stop hurting when I think about you? Will it come a day when the sorrow and pain doesn't take my breath away, when I can hear your name without crying?_

Professor Kearney held another memory speech for Toby and I sobbed furiously during the whole of it. Felicity said something to me that was probably meant to be sympathetic but I really couldn't take it in. My brother didn't die in a tragical accident as people were told he did. My brother, the most honest one of all the Hufflepuffs, was killed because he knew too much. Killed by Sweeney Todd, the demon from Hell. Sweeney Todd, the loving father who the world had done horrible things to...  
I sent Nellie owls every day, and some days I missed her more than Sweeney. Nellie was the only one who fully understoodwhat it was like to watch a person you love kill another person you love because "there is no other way". We shared the memory of Toby and that made me grow very close to her.  
Life at Hogwarts was alright. I did my home work, tried not to cry in public and talked to Felicity when I had to. She seemed to love Scorpius more than ever and spent all her time with him and his pure blood mafia: Orian Clark, Delroy Alfort and Jarvis Morley.  
Zander Trenton, the only boy in our class who wasn't allowed to join because his mother was a muggle, talked to me shortly after returning to Hogwarts:  
"Todd… Ruby. Would you mind if I work with you in class and maybe spend some time with you in the common room? You seem to be very lonely too."  
I didn't think about it for too long.  
"I would love to, Zander. On one condition: don't ask anything about my family. Ever. Is that alright?"  
That was fine with him and soon we shared a nice and easy friendship that suited both of us. I had someone to work with in class, someone to play chess with in the common room when I felt like it and someone to talk to about homework and our teachers and people at school. And I didn't have to lie to him when he asked about my dead brother or my parents, because he never did. It was simply perfect.

It took me almost a month to ask Rose again about that meeting with the Turpin boy, though. I was scared. What if he was as evil as his father? And, worse, what if he told me something horrible about Johanna that I then had to tell Sweeney?  
But when Sweeney actually sent me an owl and asked if I had any news about his daughter, I decided that it was time to get it done. So I met up with Rose outside the Ravenclaw common room and waited there until two boys in the sixth form came out.  
The first one was a beautiful, pale boy with silvery-blonde hair. He shook my hand.  
"Louis Weasley. You must be Ruby, the Slytherin friend of Rose's."  
"I am. Nice to meet you."  
"This is my friend Edmund."  
Edmund Turpin was a skinny sixteen-year-old with sharp face features and thick, blonde hair. He scrutinized me umbrageously.  
"Why do you want to talk to me?"  
Louis went back into the common room and me and Rose brought young Turpin to an empty corridor.  
"I'm sorry to bother you, but I want to ask you some questions about your father…"  
"My father?" His face stiffened. "Whatever he has done to you, I have nothing to do with it. No one hates him more than I do."  
The cold in his voice made me nervous and I totally lost everything I had planned to say. Fortunately, Rose took over:  
"Actually, Ruby wanted to know something about your father's ward, a young woman named Johanna."  
"Johanna?"  
"You know her?" I said hopefully.  
"Of course I do." To think about Johanna instead of his father made Edmund much friendlier. "Sweet, sweet Johanna, like a sister to me she is. She and little Zarah are the only family I have, the only ones who mean anything to me."  
"Zarah? Who's Zarah?"  
"Johanna's daughter. She is actually the one who is my sister, but I'm the closest she has to a real father since our mutual one is such an asshole..." His eyes darkened again. "And sweet Johanna, who had to marry the man who raised her. It's just... disgusting."  
_Sweeney, you have a granddaughter. Her father is Judge Turpin, your daughter's husband.  
_Oh, Sweeney. How could I possibly tell him something as horrible as that? The hate and pain in his eyes would kill me.  
_Judge Turpin who marries his little girl, who rapes her just like Mr. Corlett did to me, pretty little Johanna who gives birth to a baby girl...,  
_I felt sick. Like I was going to puke in any minute. Edmund must have seen that, since he laid a hand on my shoulder and said really friendly:  
"Yes, it makes me sick as well. But why do you want to know all this? And how do you know about Johanna? She has hardly been outside the house in her whole life."  
"Edmund..." I just couldn't call him "Turpin". This skinny and misunderstood boy couldn't possibly have anything to do with that horrible judge. "Do you know what happened to Johanna's parents?"  
"I do not. I was four years old when my father came home with a beautiful little baby girl and he told me nothing except for: 'This is Johanna, your new sister'. My own mother was a whore who died soon after I was born and forced my father to take care of me, so first I thought that maybe it was the same for Johanna. I soon realised that Johanna wasn't my father's child, thought, but he never told anyone of us anything. Except for that Johanna's father was a filthy criminal and her mother was dead, but I know she never believed him. She's still dreaming of the day when some of her relatives will find her and set her free..."  
_Johanna, Johanna, pretty Johanna. Sweeney is coming for you, Sweeney will set you free. Sweeney loves you...  
_I didn't realise I had tears in my eyes until Rose swept them away. I smiled exculpatory.  
"I know Johanna's father and he loves her." I started to sing:  
"There was a barber and his wife  
And she was beautiful  
A foolish barber and his wife, she was his reason and his life  
And she was beautiful  
And she was virtuous  
And he was...  
Naive.  
There was another man who saw  
That she was beautiful  
A pious vulture of the law  
Who, with a gesture of his claw  
Removed the barber from his plate  
Then, there was nothing but to wait  
And she would fall,  
so soft,  
so young,  
so lost and oh so beautiful..."  
I had Edmund's full attention. Obviously he had never heard this story before.  
"That barber, Benjamin Barker, was transported for a crime he didn't commit. Just because your father wanted his wife, Lucy Barker. When she refused, your father simply raped her and after that she poisoned herself. And Judge Turpin made the last member of the Barker family, little Johanna, hid ward."  
"That's just... horrible." Edmund spat. "That... bastard!"  
_Here we go again, Ruby: telling another Hogwarts student everything. This time it's a Ravenclaw boy you hardly know.  
_No, I didn't know him. But he had grown up with a father he hated, just like me. Probably he had been abused, too. And that fact made me feel... connected to him in a way I couldn't really explain. It felt like I could trust him.  
"Benjamin Barker came back to London, fifteen years later, his name was now Sweeney Todd and he wanted revenge on the judge who destroyed his family. "  
"Todd? So that means you're Johanna's sister?"  
I couldn't help smiling. I would love to consider her to be my sister. "Sort of. I'm Sweeney Todd's adopted daughter. My mother is dead, and my father is almost as nice as yours. Sweeney saved me from the street."  
Edmund nodded. "Revenge, you said? In which way?"  
_Lying isn't good for anything, Ruby. Be honest with the boy, otherwise you will never get anywhere.  
_"He wants to kill your father for what he did."


	9. 8 But there's no place like London

_A/N: You know, the other day I thought: what if my readers would appreciate regular updating more than long, overworked chapters twice every year?  
Any way, thank you for your incredible patience. Sorry for the dreadful updating. I want you to know that this story is on my mind 24/7, but unfortunately it doesn't make me write more...  
Love you guys 3  
/Lea Jailbird_

Dear Sweeney.  
The Turpin boy told me that he considers Johanna to be his sister. The Judge has told her that her mother is dead and her father is a filthy criminal, but Edmund told me that Johanna has never believed him. She is married to the Judge and they have a daughter, Zarah, but Johanna is still dreaming of that day when some of her relatives will come and set her free. She is a sweet, shy and affectionate young woman who has been longing for a proper family her entire life.  
When we come back to London for Easter holiday, I will walk home with Edmund and meet Johanna. You can come later to pick me up, that is your way to the Judge.  
Edmund agreed to take part in this plan on one condition: that he can come home with us and Johanna. I know it will be hard for you, but he is not like his father at all. I told him that Nellie will welcome him.  
I love you, Sweeney. Next Easer, you will pick up both of your daughters at Judge Turpin's place.  
Ruby

Dear Nellie  
Edmund Turpin is a really sweet boy, not like his father at all. He is simply misunderstood after growing up without any affection.  
When we come back to London for Easter holiday, I will walk home with him. Sweeney will come there and kill the Judge, then he can simply take both me and Johanna home.  
Edmund agreed on letting Sweeney kill his father on one condition: that he can come home with us. He is sixteen years old and doesn't have anywhere to go, Johanna and her little daughter are the only family he has.  
What that boy needs the most is a loving mother. Sweeney will probably never see him as anything else than Judge Turpin's son, but I know you will take care of him. Be as nice to him as you have been to me, as nice as you were to Toby.  
I love you.  
Ruby

After sending the letters, I sat down in the common room and thought about Zarah Turpin. She was only four years old, probably as sweet and innocent as any child, and we were about to welcome her into our family of demons. Her father was about to be killed by her grandfather.  
She wasn't that different from me, or Edmund, or Toby, or her own mother. We were all born innocent children, forced into this cruel world. Now, one of us was dead. One was a murderer, just like her adoptive father. And the other three, Judge Turpin's wife and his two children, oh God. What would the world do to them? What had it already done to them?  
_There's a hole in the world like a great black pit,  
and it's filled with people who are filled with shit,  
and the vermin of the world inhabit it  
But not for long  
They all deserve to die  
Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why  
Cause in all of the whole human race, Mrs. Lovett, there are two kinds of men and only two  
There's the one staying put in his proper place and the one with his foot in the other one's face  
Look at me, Mrs. Lovett, look at you  
No we all deserve to die!_

I slept even less than I used to do now. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Toby having his throat slit. And he was always looking straight at me, with eyes which said: I trusted you. I loved you like a sister. And you betrayed me.  
I knew I would never get rid of that picture. I knew I could never live a normal life, I was doomed forever. I was a demon.

When the Ester Holiday finally came, me and Edmund made sure we had a compartment of our own. As I had already guessed, we had a lot in common.  
"The good days, my father just called me a child of a whore and left me alone. The bad days, he never got tired of beating me. When I got that letter from Hogwarts, he was delighted to finally get rid of me. I just go home during the holidays to see Johanna and Zarah, if I didn't have them I would stay at Hogwarts forever."  
"My biological father was beating both me and mother. I was eleven when he beat her to death. I ran away, got raped, beaten again… Then I was saved by Mr. Sweeney Todd. I love him like a father."  
_Life of Ruby Todd: short version. At least I don't start to cry when I don't give him any details.  
_Edmund took my hand and I wanted him to never let go of it. I hardly knew the son of Judge Turpin but I already loved him.  
"At least you know what it was like to have a loving mother, and what it is like to have a loving adoptive father. I've never had anyone."  
_Sweet, sweet boy. And the first family you will have is a demon one…  
_I understood exactly what Sweeney meant when he said he wanted to protect his beautiful Johanna from the life we were living. Sweet Edmund had already been through far more than enough in his life, he deserved a better family. I caressed his hand.  
"What is he like, Mr. Todd?"  
"Introvert. Destructive. Vengeful." I sighted. "Deep inside: loving. Caring. Really sweet. But the world has been so cruel to him that he had to stop feeling in order to stay alive. I love him more than anything else, he is my other half and soul mate, but sometimes I really wish he could be different. Focus more on the positive things in life."  
"And Mrs. Lovett, what is she like?"  
I couldn't help smiling. "She is like a mother to every abused, orphaned child she comes across. Sure, life has been cruel to her as well, but she still feels in a way Mr. Todd doesn't."  
"Some days, I used to wish I could stop feeling as well." Edmund sighted. "Stop longing for a mother, stop feeling sorry for Johanna when my father raped her, stop feeling sorry for Zarah who had to grow up with him…"  
I took his other hand as well, and mumbled without thinking: "Never stop feeling, Edmund. As long as you feel, you will stay human. If you stop feeling, you will end up like a demon. Like me and Mr. Todd…"  
"Ruby, I know a demon when I see one. My father is a demon and you're certainly not one. How could you ever think such a thing?"  
"You don't know me, Edmund…" I let go of his hands, didn't even dare to look at him. I wanted his friendship and respect so badly, it felt like we belonged together, but how could he ever love someone like me? A murderer. "I've done horrible things…"  
"So have I. You think that makes me a demon?"  
I didn't answer that question. Cause suddenly I saw it all happen: Edmund moving in, growing close to Nellie, making her a substitute mother, swearing to protect her from everything, then finding out about the meat pies. And Toby and Veruca and all the people Sweeney had killed. Then: Sweeney slitting his throat. Me and Nellie crying. Another memory speech by professor Kearney. Someone at Hogwarts finding the connection between the three dead students – me. Someone investigating. Someone finding out even more. Someone finding out to much. A dark and cold dungeon. A trial. Death.  
Maybe Death was the only place where we could ever be happy. Sweeney would see his wife again, Nellie would see her son. I would see my mother...  
_No, Ruby. Thinking that way doesn't make anything better. You are the only one who can handle Sweeney, and you have to stay strong for Edmund, Johanna and Zarah if anything's gonna work when they move in.  
_"Edmund... there are things you should know, if you're going to live with us. We are not exactly a happy family, there are secrets and tragedies in the past that keep tormenting us. Nothing is easy when it comes to us, we are three very broken people. Especially Mr. Todd. You have to keep in mind that your father destroyed his life, raped his daughter and made his wife commit suicide. He loves his pretty Johanna, but he will find it very hard to accept you and Zarah."  
"Of course." Edmund said impatiently. "I do not expect anything else."  
"I had a brother, Toby. He died recently and it's still very painful for Nell... Mrs. Lovett. You have to keep that in mind as well."  
_How do you survive losing your son? How can life go on, how can sun still rise in the mornings...  
And how can you love a man who has killed your child in front of your eyes?  
Nellie has to be even more broken than I am...  
_Edmund nodded. "Yes, I remember Kearney's memory speech. Anything else?"  
_Don't get killed. Please, don't give Sweeney a reason to slit your throat...  
_"Do what Mr. Todd or Mrs. Lovett tells you to. Let them have their secrets and don't ask any questions. That's the most important thing of all."  
He nodded again and hid my face into my hands. Wishing I could create a better world there inside, a beautiful world with no secrets, no tragedies, no death...

For the first time in four years, I went off the Hogwarts Express and no one was waiting for me there. There was no safe embrace to run into, no safe world to return to, nothing was safe anymore.  
I was following a boy I hardly knew, to the house of the man who had destroyed Sweeney's life. Sweeney was coming there to kill him and take us home. This would either turn out into a happy family life or more deaths. I wasn't sure about which of it. Suddenly I was just so scared I could hardly stand on my legs. Desperately, I looked around the platform for a single piece of safety... and caught sight of a group of redheads...  
"Edmund, I just have to have a quick talk with Rose. You can wait here." Without waiting for an answer, I made my way through the crowd and ran right into her arms.  
"Ruby, hi! How are you?"  
I realised I was shaking. She took that for an answer and held me close until I stopped.  
"I'm sorry." I whispered. "I'm just... so scared.  
"Ruby, promise me one thing." She said deathly serious, looking into my eyes. "If that judge tries to hurt you in any way, use magic. There will be a pandemonium but the Ministry of Magic can always delete his memory. And you are allowed to use magic in the Muggle world if you are in great danger, my uncle got away with that once. Do you promise?"  
I nodded. After all, I was placed in Slytherin because I was "willing to break rules and laws in order to protect myself and my loved ones"  
"And another thing, Ruby. I know this will be a lot harder to promise, but… if it gets even worse when you come home, if more of your family members are killed, or if the situation simply gets unsustainable… Please, come and stay at my place. I can tell my parents that you can't live with your family and they won't ask you any questions. I know how much you love Mr. Todd, but you have to think about yourself as well. Do you promise me that?"  
It wasn't that hard to promise at all. I nodded, whispered "thank you" and returned to Edmund.  
We made our way through the filthy streets of London, without saying a word. We were both too lost in our own thoughts.  
_I too have sailed the world and seen its wonders  
For the cruelty of men, is as wondrous as Peru  
But there's no place like London...  
_Whatever happened next, it would change our lives forever. There was no way back.


	10. 9 I'll steal you, Johanna

_A/N: Oh, crap. Remember in the chapter where Ruby and Edmund first met, when he told her he was four years old when his father came home with Johanna? I just realised that makes no sense at all. Johanna was sixteen when the movie took place, and since Ruby is fifteen now; this story takes place four years later. Edmund is in the sixth grade at Hogwarts, Johanna is twenty.  
Trust me, there was a reason I quit that maths course at school xD I'm dreadful at maths and all sorts of logical thinking.  
Oh well, I've read somewhere that even JK Rowling made some mathematical mistakes with the Black Tapestry and that actually makes me feel better._

Since the first time I saw Judge Turpin, all I could think of was how beautiful his blood would spurt the very moment Sweeney let one of his friends sink deeply into his neck. The man radiated a cold and evil unlike anything I'd even seen before. I was terrified from the very moment I met him.  
"And who is the girl, Edmund? Your girlfriend?"  
"Friend. Nothing else." Edmund mumbled with his eyes lowered. The poor boy looked like he expected a beating in any second. I squeezed my wand in my pocket and Sweeney's razor, the one I had killed Veruca with, in my other pocket. My wand was the thing I wanted to use if the Judge tried to rape me or started beating Edmund; I mostly squeezed the razor because it made me feel safe. If I had possessed any common sense, I would have gotten rid of that razor right after the murder. Instead I had washed away the blood and then been carrying the razor with me since that day. Those days when I felt completely lost, it actually made me feel a lot better to squeeze it in my pocket. It reminded me of the fact that I was a murderer, a demon, and belonged with Sweeney. It might not have been the best identity, but at least it was something to hold on to. And it was the only identity I had.  
"I see. Friend, and nothing else." Judge Turpin nodded and turned his whole attention to me. Edmund seemed to relax a bit, myself I squeezed the razor until my hand hurt and then I squeezed it even harder.  
The Judge scrutinized me critically from top to the bottom. Then he shook his head.  
"If you ever get a girlfriend, son, make sure to get one who is prettier than this skinny, frightened thing. Now leave me alone, I've got work to do."  
I didn't even take his words offensive; I had always known I was nothing like Sweeney's beautiful Johanna. All I could feel was a huge relief, since this meant that the Judge wouldn't rape me.  
I took Edmund's hand and we went upstairs quickly. Edmund knocked a door in the end of a corridor.  
"Johanna? I'm back. And I brought someone who would love to meet you."  
"Brother! Come in!" Edmund swung the door open immediately and I followed him inside a small bedroom. She sat on the bed.  
_I feel you, Johanna, I feel you...  
I was half convinced I'd waken, satisfied enough to dream you  
Happily I was mistaken, Johanna...  
I'll steal you, Johanna, I'll steal you...  
_Johanna was, without any doubt, the most beautiful young woman I had ever seen. Her hair was truly yellow, like gold. She hugged Edmund tightly.  
"I'm so glad you're back. He has been horrible the last days."  
"Oh, Johanna." Edmund mumbled, still hugging her. "All of this will end today. We will be saved. Ruby will save us."  
Johanna let go of her brother and turned to me.  
_So soft, so young, so lost and oh so beautiful...  
_"Johanna. My name is Ruby Todd and I know your father." I told her the whole story without waiting for an answer. "You father, a barber named Benjamin Barker, was transported to Australia nineteen years ago for a crime he didn't commit, just because the Judge wanted his wife. Your mother, Lucy Barker. When she refused, the Judge simply raped her and then she poisoned herself and the Judge made you his ward."  
"I knew it! I knew he has been lying to me all these years! Now tell me everything about my father!"  
_Sweet sweet little Johanna. How much of the truth can your beauty handle?  
_"Your father... well, first of all, his name is no longer Benjamin Barker. When he came back to London, he took the name Sweeney Todd."_  
_"Sweeney Todd." Johanna nodded. "Are you my sister, Ruby?" She looked so happy that I couldn't help smiling.  
"Well, my name used to be Ruby Jones and my father is the same kind of man as Judge Turpin. When he killed my mother, I ran away. And then I met Sweeney, who saved me from the street. He is like a father to me now. Yes, Johanna, I am your sister."  
"Oh Ruby. Do you think my name can be Todd as well? I hate being Johanna Turpin, I don't belong with him. I want to belong with my family."  
Tears welled up in my eyes. And suddenly, I just hugged Johanna without second thoughts.  
"Johanna Todd." I whispered into her yellow hair. "Johanna Todd, my sister. You will soon get rid of that horrible Judge forever. You father will come here for you. You will have a family again. Your father's neighbour, Mrs. Lovett, has been like a second mother to me. She will be like a mother to you and Edmund."  
Johanna still smiled when I let go of her. "What is he like, my father? Sweeney Todd." She tasted his name like an exotic fruit.  
_He killed all the people for you, Johanna. He missed your mother so much and thought he would never see you, his beautiful daughter, again and he just couldn't handle that in any other way but oh he loves you so much and he did everything for you...  
_"The fifteen years in Australia was a living hell, and that changed your father forever. That was why he took himself a new name; he was no longer the same man. The years had made him cold and vengeful. All he wanted was to kill the Judge who had destroyed his life and taken his family away from him. He has killed other people too, he has done horrible things, but it was all a way of trying to handle that he would never see you or your mother again. He loves you so much, Johanna, he has been longing for you every day all these years."  
It was really hard to tell her as much of the truth as possible, without scaring her. My new sister most have been tougher than I thought, though, since she was still smiling.  
"I don't care about what he has done: he is my father and I will bear his name. I can't wait to meet him."_  
I never cared either. The first time I met him, he killed a man in front of my eyes and still all I could feel was his warm hug...  
The Turpin children will be a problem, though. Will he ever be able to accept them or even... stand them?  
_"Hi Zarah, have you missed me?"  
I turned around to find Edmund standing with a little girl in his arms.  
"Zarah, this is Ruby. She's you mother's sister."  
_Oh, Sweeney. Why does it have to be this hard for you? If only your grandchild had looked more like your beautiful daughter and less like the man who destroyed your life...  
_There was no possibility to deny the obvious: Zarah Turpin was not a beautiful child. Zarah Turpin looked so much like her father that no one would ever be able to look at her without thinking about him.  
Edmund saw my reaction and his face immediately stiffened. "She's only a child, Ruby." He said coldly. "She can't help she looks so much like her father."  
"Of course not..." I mumbled. _Aren't we all innocent children, born into a cruel world?  
_I tried to look at her again, trying to find a trace of my beautiful sister in her face. It was impossible. All I saw was Judge Turpin, who raped Johanna when she was hardly older than me and forced her to give birth to his child...  
"I'm warning you, Ruby." Edmund started sounding hostile. "Zarah is my sister. If you don't accept her, you will not..."  
Before he got any further, hid father called from downstairs:  
"Edmund? The local barber is here to take your little friend home."

_A/N (again): Do I hear applause for the fast updating? Well, this story is great when you want to forget your own miserable life. Ruby and Sweeney are always feeling worse xD  
No, I do not have a miserable life. I'm just having loads of angst, since I graduate in two weeks (yes, I'm 19, can you believe it? I can't) and have to grow up and start thinking about jobs and education and my future and such things. I will be fine, I'm going to England in August, so most of all I'm just proper sad all the time. These three years have been the best ones of my life and it will be really hard for me to graduate and have to say goodbye to my classmates, my friends and my amazing teachers.  
Well, enough about me then xD I want you to know that I love you, all of you, just for taking the time to read this story. But most of all, I love Vee Weasley, Saphire Bethany Stacy Skyle and Acro111 for their amazing reviews :D 3  
_


	11. 10 The years no doubt have changed me

I told Edmund and Johanna exactly what was going to happen, and none of them felt like watching it. I therefore told them to stay in Johanna's bedroom and sneaked downstairs myself.  
The two men were having a conversation about pretty women and none of them noticed that I was standing in the doorway, watching them.  
"How about a shave, your honour? We should have plenty of time before my daughter comes downstairs."  
_Sweeney. _My whole body and soul was longing for him so badly that it hurt, but I braced myself and stayed in the doorway. He was finally going to get his revenge and I wouldn't let anything stop that.  
The Judge sat down in his own chair, not suspecting anything.  
"Pretty women  
Blowing out their candles or combing out their hair  
Even when they leave you and vanish, they somehow can still remain,  
There with you..."  
"How seldom it is one meets a fellow spirit..."  
"With fellow taste. In women at least."  
"What's that?" The Judge still didn't suspect anything, but looked a little surprised. Sweeney smiled a demonic smile that scared even me.  
"The years no doubt have changed me, sir. But then I suppose the face of a barber, the face of a prisoner in the dock, is not particularly rememorable."  
When Sweeney's words sank in, all of the Judge's face lit with fear.  
"Benjamin Barker..."  
"BENJAMIN BARKER!" Judge Turpin was dead in two seconds, but that didn't stop Sweeney. He turned The Judge's throat into an unrecognizable piece of flesh and blood, still with that demonic smile on his face. Every single drop of blood seemed to make him even more excited.  
I just stood in the doorway, watching everything. I was a skinny, orphaned little girl and I didn't look away a single time, no matter how much the blood spurted. I was the demon's child.  
When Sweeney finally was done with the slaughter, every single piece of him seemed to be covered with blood. As well as the walls, ceiling and parts of the floor. He stopped smiling, got down on his knees and raised his razor.  
"Rest now, my friend  
Rest now, forever  
Sleep now, the untroubled  
Sleep of the angels..."  
_Vengeance. Satisfaction. Oh Sweeney, my beloved Sweeney, are you finally happy?  
_He suddenly realised that I was standing in the doorway and turned to me.  
"Ruby... come here, precious..."  
I had nothing to fear anymore. The Judge was dead; he would not harm neither me nor Johanna or Edmund. I ran into Sweeney's arms and hugged him until I had blood all over myself as well.  
We stood like that, locked in each other's embraces, for what seemed to be forever. When we finally let go, Sweeney stroked my chin with the hand which had just killed Judge Turpin.  
"I've missed you so much, Sweeney." I said. "Johanna is upstairs. She's so beautiful, I already call her my sister... You know as soon as I told her your name, she asked if she could be Johanna Todd and belong with her family instead of with that horrible Judge. Then I tried to tell her as much of the truth as possible without scaring her, I told her that you have killed people and done horrible things but also how much you love her, and she smiled and said: 'I don't care about what he has done, he's my father and I will bear his name. I can't wait to meet him.'"  
Sweeney turned his face away, but too late. I had already seen the tears in his eyes. I hugged him again and then I helped him to wash away the blood from his face. There was not much to do about his clothes, but at least Johanna wouldn't see him for the first time with his face all covered with blood.  
I took his hand and slowly lead him upstairs, feeling how hard every step was for him. So many years, so much blood...  
"Ruby?" His voice was hardly more than a whisper. "Does she... look much like her mother?"  
I had seen the photo of Lucy Barker enough times to know perfectly well what Johanna's mother looked like. I nodded.  
"She does. The same yellow hair, pale skin, beautiful face. Her mother's eyes, only sadder. But oh, how they lit up when I told her she has a family. Little Johanna Todd..."  
We stopped outside her door. I could hear Johanna and Edmund talk behind it, it sounded like they were arguing.  
_Just make sure Sweeney and Johanna have a beautiful reunion, and take care of the problem with Edmund and Zarah later.  
_"Are you ready, Sweeney?"  
He lowered his eyes, nodded silently. I knocked on the door.  
"Johanna? It's over. Judge Turpin is dead. Your father is here with me."  
I didn't have to say that twice. The door swung open immediately and a happily smiling Johanna appeared. The blood on Sweeney's clothes didn't seem to scare her at all, on the contrary her smile grew even bigger.  
"Father? Oh father, it is truly over. I can see his blood on your clothes; you have killed the horrible judge and saved me!"  
That became too much for Sweeney. He took two steps forward, hugged Johanna tightly to him and started to sob.  
"My Johanna... my little girl... my child... you're even more beautiful than I imagined..."  
Johanna closed her eyes and hugged him back. I realised I had tears in my own eyes. I had a sister, and we could be a proper family...  
It wasn't until Sweeney and Johanna let go that I realised that Edmund was standing in the doorway, with Zarah next to him. The friendship and understanding we had shared on the Hogwarts Express seemed to be gone forever. He held his sister's hand like everyone else in this world wanted to harm her and he was the only one who could protect her. And, what was worse: it was probably true.  
_I'm sorry, Edmund, I'm so sorry. I wanted so badly to show you that you were right, that I am no demon. I wanted to change for you. But some things will never change...  
_Johanna realised it was time for a proper introduction.  
"Father, this is Edmund. He's the Judge's son and like a brother to me. And this is Zarah, my daughter."  
Sweeney nodded rigidly at Edmund's direction. When he took a closer look at Zarah, his beautiful eyes were filled with something worse than pain. Pure and undissembled loathing.  
"She looks so much like... him." Sweeney spit.  
Johanna nodded seriously. "I know. It has been hard for me too, some days I've hardly been able to look at her... The Judge raped me so many times that it's a wonder that I didn't give birth to three more of his children..."  
Sweeney looked at four-year-old little Zarah as if it had been her fault that Judge Turpin raped her mother. Then he hugged Johanna close to him again.  
"I swear to you that no one will ever rape you or hurt you again. I will kill anyone who tries."

"Ruby! Thank goodness you're back, love!" When Nellie hugged me that way I was reminded of how much I loved her. She could never replace my mother, but she was the closest I had to one.  
"It's over now, Nellie." I whispered in her embrace. "Judge Turpin is dead. Sweeney and Johanna are reunited. Edmund and Zarah Turpin, well... They will surely need a mother."  
"I'll do my best." She smiled and turned to the Turpin children behind me. "You must be Edmund and Zarah! I'm Mrs. Lovett. Oh dear, you look starving, would you like a nice juicy meet pie?"  
Edmund's face softened immediately. "I would like that very much, ma'am. Would you, Zarah?"  
The little girl nodded, still holding her brother's hand and watching everyone else with suspicion. She was only a child, she couldn't help who her father was and least of all she could help that she looked so much like him. I wished I could have accepted her, I really did, but all I could think of was how the Judge raped my sister and forced her to give birth to his child...  
"And you must be Johanna, lovely to finally meet you! I'm Mrs. Lovett, your father's neighbour." Nellie gave Johanna a friendly hug and then she turned to Sweeney. "Mr. Todd, why don't you take your daughter upstairs and show her your room? I bet the two of you will have a lot to talk about."  
Sweeney nodded, took Johanna's hand and led her upstairs. The pain was stronger than I could ever imagine. I had known that everything would change, but it wasn't until that moment I dared to realise in which way. Sweeney had his beautiful Johanna back. I would never be his precious demon child again, bound to him by blood and tragedy. Johanna, his angel who he had been longing for every day for twenty years, would be the most important person in his life. I would be second important. If I would count at all...  
Tears welled up in my eyes and before I had any chance to stop it, I started to sob. Nellie must have read my mind, since she left the Turpin children with their meat pies and immediately hugged me.  
"Ruby, my dearest Ruby. Mr. Todd and Johanna have twenty years to recover; they will need time alone in the beginning. I'm sure that doesn't mean Mr. Todd will forget about you; the two of you have been through enough together to make that impossible. And no matter what happens, love, you will always have me."  
Her words filled me with a safe and warm feeling. "Thank you." I whispered and dried my tears.  
"Would you like a meat pie too, darling? It's pig today, since Mr. Todd hasn't been at home." She whispered back and I nodded.

_A/N: I'm tired of cliff hangers, I'll just trust that you guys keep reading the story anyway xD  
__Acro111: Haha, he did. Happy? :D  
Saphire Bethany Stacy Skyle: Aaaaaw, thank you. I bet I smile even more when I read you reviews ;)  
Well, I survived my graduation xD Although I cried like a little child when I hugged my English teacher good bye (I idolize her, really do, and I've also been very close to her during these three years). I feel pretty much like I've lost a part of myself. But nothing helps as much as writing this story :D_


	12. 11 Nothing's gonna harm you

_A/N: Well, I try to do that thing with shorter chapters and faster updates. It works pretty well :D  
I love you, guys 3  
xxxx  
/Lea_

The pie was delicious. Zarah Turpin watched me with suspicion while I ate it and Edmund still looked hostile when he met my eyes. I missed the friendship we had shared at the Hogwarts Express so much that it hurt. The only thing that hurt more was that my other half, adoptive father and soul mate had an angel child who meant more to him than I did.  
"So, Edmund dear, tell me something about yourself. You go to Hogwarts, right?"  
"Yes, ma'am, I do." He nodded and took at big bite of his meat pie. "I started doing strange things at age six; my father blamed his younger brother for those genetic abnormities, as he called it. He was really happy to get rid of me when I went to Hogwarts. I was happy to get rid of him too, but I really missed my sisters during the terms..." He stroked Zarah's cheek and she smiled.  
"I missed you too. Father was mean to me and mother was sad. Very sad."  
Nellie's eyes lit with pity as she watched the skinny girl child. Zarah's hair was blonde, not yellow like Johanna's but blonde on the verge of grey, but except for that there were really no traces of anyone but the Judge in her.  
"Don't worry, love. You father will never be mean again and I'm sure your mother will be much happier now, when she is reunited with her own father."  
Zarah didn't answer Nellie. Instead she turned to her brother.  
"Edmund, are we going to live here now?"  
"Yes, darling, we are."  
"But why?"  
What would be a suitable answer to that? _Because your father has been killed by your grandfather, Zarah? Because your mother wants to be with her family and we're a part of it? Because this very nice woman will give us all meat pies we can eat, as long as we don't ask her what's inside them?  
_I had to admit I was rather curious about Edmund's answer. How much of the truth would he give to his sister and how much would he protect her from?  
He sighted. "Well, your mother has always been longing for her family, and now when she has found her father she wants to live with him. And we want to live with your mother, don't we?"  
"I want to live with you. You're the only one who likes me."  
That even hurt inside of me.  
"Oh Zarah, don't say that!" But it, of course, hurt poor Nellie even worse. "I'm sure you mother loves you."  
"I just make mother sad." The poor child continued. "Sometimes she cries when she looks at me. And her father hates me. I don't like him either, his eyes are so cold. I think he wants to kill me."  
_Oh dear, if you only knew...  
_"And his daughter," Zarah Turpin pointed a pale finger at me, "is scared of me."  
The joy I felt when even a little child considered me to be Sweeney's daughter more than Johanna was vanished with the accusing look Nellie gave me.  
"Zarah, listen to me." Edmund turned his sister towards him and looked straight into her eyes. "Ruby was scared of our father. Mr. Todd hated our father and wanted to kill him. You look very much like our father, but you're not him. Ruby and Mr. Todd should know that. Ruby and Mr. Todd are acting very stupid and childish, and that's not your fault. Not at all."  
"Your father actually destroyed Mr. Todd's life..." Despite the pain I felt, I still loved Sweeney more than anything else and had to defend him against such statements. "He transported him to a living Hell in Australia and then raped..."  
"Shut up." And at that very moment, Edmund looked exactly like his father. Cold and evil in a way that instinctively made me squeeze the razor I still had in my pocket. "Our father has done horrible things, yes, but you and Mr. Todd are no better, blaming me and Zarah for that."  
"I'm not blaming any of you for anything..." I mumbled and lowered my eyes.  
"I'm not stupid, Ruby. I can tell from the way you look at Zarah. And I can tell from the way you look at Mr. Todd that you would do anything he told you. You only hated our father because he did, didn't you? I really thought that we could be friends, Ruby, really HOPED that we could, but then you turned out to be a weak and pathetic little rat who can only do what Mr. Todd tells you to. I honestly feel sorry for you."  
I ran out of the pie shop and slammed the door behind me. Then I sat down on the stairs outside, played with my razor and lively imagined how I sunk it into Edmund's neck. Maybe I could do it at night, when he was asleep... Nellie hadn't grown that close to him yet, she probably wouldn't miss him. Sweeney would most likely be HAPPY to get rid of him. The best part with my family was that no one would ask any questions about a slit throat. Zarah could be a problem; she would probably be sleeping in the same bed as Edmund. I guessed I had to slit her throat too. It would be harder, but I would probably do the unwanted child a favour. Send her away from the cruel world she never should have been born into.  
_Ruby, please. Remember the event history you pictured on the train? It also started with Edmund having his throat slit. Remember how it ended? With a dark and cold dungeon, a trial and Death.  
_I laughed bitterly and polished my razor. I was supposed to prevent Sweeney from slitting anymore throats, at least throats that his daughter would mourn, and then I suddenly ended up wanting to slit them myself. The demon's child...  
_Johanna, beautiful Johanna, I'm afraid your father and half sister will never get along with your daughter and brother. And how can we possibly ask you to take sides?_

When the night fell, I sneaked upstairs and carefully opened the door to Sweeney's room. Just to find him peacefully asleep, with his arms wrapped around Johanna.  
I sat on the stairs for what felt like hours, crying until I could hardly breathe. When all my tears had fallen, nothing but emptiness remained. I made my way downstairs and turned to the only one I had left.  
"Nellie?"  
She sat on her bed, reading a book. The Turpin children were asleep on the floor, Edmund with his arms wrapped around Zarah as if he knew what I had been thinking and wanted to protect his sister from my razor.  
"Oh, Ruby." Nellie smiled to me.  
I realized I had told her nothing. Nothing about my parents, nothing about Mr. Corlett, nothing about my nightmares and certainly nothing about why I could never sleep without Sweeney next to me. To her, I was just a sad and fragile orphan who Mr. Todd had taken in from the street four years ago.  
"You know nothing about me, Nellie, I'm so sorry I've never told you... My father beat my mother to death in front of my eyes when I was eleven, that was when I ran away and ended up in the street. Then there was this man who raped me, I was his slave until the day Sweeney slit his throat. I'm still having horrible nightmares about all of this, that is why I hardly sleep at all. Well the truth is; I use to sleep next to Sweeney, in his bed, he's having nightmares as well so we use to comfort each other, all my nightmares feel less horrible with him next to me..."  
I had no tears left, but the pain pierced my heart like one of his razors. I had never seen him sleep so peacefully before, ever. Johanna was certainly something to him that I could never be...  
"...but tonight, you found him already asleep with Johanna next to him?" Nellie guessed. I nodded and lowered my eyes while the razor continued piercing my heart.  
"Oh dear, your poor thing. You can sleep in my bed tonight, love, I promise I will comfort you and keep you safe. _Nothing's gonna harm you, darling, not while I'm around..._"  
It felt unused at first, having Nellie that close to me, but pretty soon I started to relax and felt all the pain melt away. I closed my eyes when Nellie wrapped her arms around me.  
"Oh, Ruby. I use to have nightmares as well, and they are all about Toby... I just stood there when Mr. Todd slit his throat, Toby loved me like a mother and I didn't even try to protect him..." Nellie's voice in my ear, soft and filled with pain. I was so tired, more tired than I'd ever been before.  
"Toby was so innocent..." I mumbled, slowly drifting into sleep for the first time in what seemed like forever. "He didn't deserve this demon family. I hope he is happier in heaven, with his real parents."  
"I'm sure he is. There is a heaven, and that's where Toby and your mother are, watching over us..."  
"Along with Johanna's mother..." I saw Lucy as an angel on a cloud, looking down on us. Probably with happiness as her husband and daughter were reunited. Toby laughing on another cloud, with a man and woman who looked really much like him. To picture my mother watching me crying all these tears and being abandoned by Sweeney was too painful, so I made her laugh with Toby's mother instead. Those clouds were so soft, I sunk into them...  
"Ruby, there is something I should tell you... And I should probably have told Mr. Todd years ago..."  
"Tomorrow..." I mumbled, sinking into that cloud. "I'm so tired. I love you, Nellie..."  
She sighted. "I love you too, Ruby. I know I can never replace your mother, but I swear that you are like a daughter to me and that I will take care of you as such..."  
And then I fell asleep, with Nellie's arms protecting me from all nightmares.


	13. 12 If only angels could prevail

_A/N: Have you missed me? I'VE MOVED TO ENGLAND :D :D :D I was in London last week and it is true: THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE LONDON 3  
I'm actually really proud of this story. The thing I love with Sweeney Todd fan fiction is that you hardly need a judge to kill; the characters and their secrets, dark pasts and relationships are enough to build a whole story on. And then, just in case, I added three extra characters. The result: so many secrets, tragic pasts and relationships that I hardly know where to begin xD_

First, I thought it was the absence of Nellie's warm body next to mine that had awakened me. Then I realized that I heard loud voices. Johanna and Edmund were screaming at each other, and Nellie was trying to calm them down. I sighted, prepared myself for a living hell and got up from Nellie's bed.  
"…Zarah is your DAUGHTER, Johanna, and you have no idea about how much you've already hurt her during all these years! The last thing she needs is to live with this lunatic who looks at her as if he wanted to kill her!"  
"This 'lunatic' happens to be my father! And YOU'RE the one who has no idea! You've spent half your life at this magical boarding school, made friends and had a good time while I've been LOCKED IN A TOWER and raped by your father! For my whole life I've been dreaming that some member of my real family; an aunt, a cousin, anything, would come and set me free, give me a real home, and now I've found my father and sister…"  
"That weak and pathetic girl is NOT YOUR SISTER, Johanna! She's as much of a lunatic as Mr. Todd and would probably do anything if he just told her! And I certainly DID NOT have a good time at Hogwarts, cause all I could ever think of was you and Zarah at home! I never made any REAL friends, none of those boys and girls from perfect little wizard families could ever understand what it was like to…"  
None of them noticed me entering the room, they just kept on screaming at each other. Nellie had given up the try of making them calm down, and just stood there watching. All the time with nervous looks at Sweeney, who squeezed his razor in his pocket. Zarah Turpin sat in a corner, watching the scene with a hatred that I had never before seen in the eyes of such a young child.  
"Does it mean NOTHING to you, all these years when we were like brother and sister!? Are you just going to throw that away, now when you're reunited with your 'real' family?"  
"It's not that easy, Edmund, it is…"  
"Oh yes. It's all very easy. I mean nothing to you, do I?"  
Tears welled up in my sister's beautiful eyes and all I wanted was to hug her and sweep them away. Nellie was quicker, though.  
Sweeney, on the other hand, had his eyes fixed upon Edmund. And the look in his dark eyes could only mean one thing: someone was going to die.  
"Edmund. Why don't you and Zarah follow me upstairs for…"  
"Sweeney, no." I was so sick of all this killing, I just couldn't cope any longer. "Can't you understand that your methods won't solve anything? Look where they have taken us this far!"  
"What are you talking about, sister?" Johanna let go of Nellie and turned to me. "What methods?"  
When Sweeney looked at me, for the first time since his reunion with Johanna, his eyes were cold as death. No traces of the affection with which he used to look at me. And somewhere there: nothing mattered any more. I screamed at him:  
"Go ahead, tell your daughter what you were going to do to the boy she loves like a brother! Not to mention your own grandchild, a four year old little girl! Reveal yourself as the demon you are!"  
And before anyone had the chance to stop me, I ran out and slammed the door behind me. I ran faster than I had ever run before, positive that if I just ran fast enough I would be able to run away from everything.  
It didn't work. Exhausted, I sat down on a bench and considered to kill myself. Ever since my mother died, I had more or less thought about it every day. Until I met Sweeney and suddenly had someone who cared for me, who kept me safe and claimed to love me…  
_He will find you dead in the street, he will cry and feel so guilty about the way he looked at you right before you died that he probably kills himself to follow you. Then the two of you can have a beautiful reunion in heaven while Nellie, Johanna, Edmund and Zarah are a happy family on earth. Yes, Ruby, everything will be perfect if you just kill yourself.  
_Then I realized that only good people come to heaven. Sweet and innocent people like Toby, my mother and Lucy Barker. Sweeney and I would go straight to hell. If he followed me at all. Why should he do that? He had his Johanna, the only daughter who mattered to him…  
_Don't think of him, it will just hurt more. _

One hour later, I knocked on the door to the Weasley's house. Mrs. Weasley opened it and I must have been a terrible sight, cause she burst out "Oh dear!" and hugged me.  
"Mrs. Weasley…" I mumbled into her shoulder, feeling tears well up in my eyes. "I'm sorry, but things are really complicated at home, and I…"  
_…don't know if I can ever go back there. I don't even know which of my family members who will be alive if I go back.  
_"Oh that's alright, Ruby, come inside!" I followed her and was suddenly surrounded by red hair.  
"Ruby! How are you?"  
"Terrible." I answered Rose truthfully. "Our life as a happy family lasted for… a day. It's pretty sad, isn't it?" I laughed tonelessly. Rose took my hand and led me upstairs, closed the door to her room behind us.  
"Has anyone died?"  
I shrugged. "Not the last time I checked. I got so sick of everything so I just ran away. Sweeney wanted to kill Edmund and Zarah. And he doesn't care about me anyway…"  
"Wait, wait. Tell me everything, from the beginning. You followed Edmund home?"  
I nodded. "Judge Turpin made me terrified. But Johanna was so beautiful and sweet, and overjoyed when I told her about her father."  
"Did you tell her the whole story?"  
"Well… no. I just said that her father had a living hell in Australia and that it made him cold and vengeful. That he has killed people and done horrible things but also loves her deeply, that he has missed her every day all these years. And all she said was 'I don't care about what he has done: he is my father and I will bear his name. I can't wait to meet him.'."  
_If only angels could prevail, we'd be the way we were_  
_Sweeney. I love you, I love you so much…  
_I decided to make the rest of the story as short as possible:  
"Johanna's daughter looks so much like her father that I can't look at her without thinking of him. Edmund loves his little sister deeply so he hates me for that. Johanna loves Edmund like a brother but she wants to be with her family. Sweeney hates both Edmund and Zarah for being Judge Turpin's children. He doesn't care about me since he got Johanna back. Johanna and Edmund were arguing this morning, and when Johanna started to cry Sweeney offered Edmund to come upstairs with Zarah. I could see in his eyes that he wanted to kill both of them. Zarah is only four years old. I got sick of all the killing, so I screamed at Sweeney to 'reveal himself as the demon he is' and then I ran away."  
"Oh, dear..." Rose shook her head. "Well, complicated is the least you can say. What about Mr. Todd's neighbour? Mrs. Lovett, that was her name, right? What does she say about all this?"  
"She's... wonderful." I smiled weakly, suddenly filled with sincere affection. "She told me that Sweeney will never forget me just because of Johanna, and even if he does I will always have her. She takes care of Johanna, Edmund and Zarah as if they were her own children..."  
"I think she is what all your family members need. If Mr. Todd ever gets over the wife Judge Turpin took from him, he should consider marrying her. Don't you think they would make a beautiful couple?"  
Just a few months ago, that thought had been absurd. But everything had changed since then. Nellie was the closest I had to a mother now; she had even said that she loved me like a daughter. She could be Johanna's mother and my stepmother and we could live happily, down by the sea...  
I nodded. I liked the thought, even though it still seemed a bit absurd. Especially since they would probably all be dead before I came home anyway.  
Rose held me close to her, stroked my hair. "You've been strong for too long, Ruby. You've taken far more responsibility than you should ever need to. You're fifteen years old, and Mr. Todd is an adult. He should be the one taking care of _you, _not the opposite..."  
"I know..." was all I could say. I had always known, deep inside. But nothing in my life had ever been the way it should be, why would this be any different?  
I sat that way, held by Rose, until her mother called from downstairs:  
"Ruby? Your older sister is here and wants to talk to you!"

_Oh my gosh.  
Has anyone read the Ink series, by Cornelia Funke? Anyway, the main character and her father have a gift: when they read books loud, the characters sometimes come out from them. As well as people can disappear into them. There is a writer who ends up in his own story.  
I reread these books pretty recently, I all I could think of was how happy I am as long as I don't end up in this story! Ruby would probably try to kill me. Edmund would certainly try to kill me. Not to mention Sweeney, and he's not even my character..._


	14. 13 It's always morning in my mind

_A/N: I must admit, I got a little tired of listening to the Sweeney Todd soundtrack over and over again while working on this story. Sure, it's Sweeney Todd, but songs like By The Sea and Pirelli's Miracle Elixir don't really fit Ruby's mood right now xD  
Then I realized that Evanescence is perfect for this story. I love Evanescence. I'm positive that Amy Lee is a fallen angel 3 _

_And in that darkness when I'm blind, with what I can't forget  
It's always morning in my mind, my little lamb, my pet  
Johanna…  
_She was as beautiful as always. She was the last thing that mattered, the last link to my family.  
"Johanna…" I hugged her tight.  
"You have to tell me what's going on, sister." Her beautiful eyes worried, filled with confusion. "Please. Father refuses to say a word to me; he just keeps looking at me as if he's going to cry at any second. Zarah and Edmund hate me. Mrs. Lovett just told me to bring you back home before you 'do something we all will regret'. She said I would most likely find you here."  
_They're all alive. Thank God.  
_"The thing you said to father, about the demon he is. What was that about? And what methods wouldn't solve anything?"  
I braced myself in order not to start to cry. I was fifteen and the adults had left me to be the one who explained it all to her, reviled the horrible truth that would probably break her heart and ruin her life.  
Rose came up behind me, as the saving angel she was in every way.  
"Johanna, this is Rose. My best friend. Rose, this is my sister Johanna."  
"A pleasure." Rose shook Johanna's hand. Then she turned to me.  
"You have to tell her, Ruby. She deserves to know the truth. I will help you."

We went back upstairs, sat down on Rose's bed. I had Rose on my left side and Johanna on my right, Rose was holding my hand.  
Sweeney had not killed anybody. He had just looked at Johanna with so much pain in his eyes. Nellie had told Johanna to bring me home before I did something we all would regret. Killed myself? Ran to the police? Killed someone else? All three of them?  
When I told Rose the truth, I defended and protected Sweeney in every way. Kept saying that he was a good person deep inside, that he did what he did just because of the horrible pain inside of him.  
Everything had changed since then. I was no longer sure of anything.  
_Your family is filled of demons, Johanna. You better run…  
_"As I told you, my father was the same kind of man as Judge Turpin. He beat my mother to death in front of my eyes when I was ten. I ran away from home and lived on the street, until I ended up with a man named Mr. Corlett. He raped and abused me." I squeezed Rose's hand tight, realized it made everything feel so much easier.  
"Oh Ruby." Johanna took my other hand. "I know what it's like, to be raped and abused, to grow up with a horrible man. We should talk about it, we are sisters and we will understand each other…"  
_My little dove, my sweet  
Johanna…  
_"I will tell you the rest of the story first, and then you can decide if you still want to be my sister. Al right?" Without waiting for an answer, I continued:  
"It all ended the day Mr. Corlett went for a shave. Sweeney Todd, the best barber in London, they said. I watched him shyly as I sat there, waiting for my master to be shaved. Mr. Todd was pale as death, and I thought he had really beautiful eyes.  
Then, he slit Mr. Corlett's throat right in front of my eyes. I was dressed as a boy, so he held his razor against my throat and asked if I needed a shave too. I panicked, started to cry and begged him not to kill me. Told him I was a girl and willing to do anything as long as he spared my life."  
I didn't dare to look at Johanna. I looked at Rose, seeking for support. She nodded , encouraged me to continue.  
"I had promised myself not to trust anyone again, but it was like I felt a connection to him. When he found out that I was only eleven years old and had been raped by Mr. Corlett, I could see that he was really angry. When he asked why I wasn't with my parents, I started to cry again and told him my sad life story. He then hugged me, comforted me and told me his own story. About the family he had lost and his hatred against the whole human race.  
He and Mrs. Lovett have a business; he slits the throats of his costumers, the ones no one will miss, and she uses their flesh in her pies. Sweeney gets his revenge on the human race, Mrs. Lovett gets free meat and London gets delicious meat pies. I felt neither scared nor sickened when he told me this, all I felt was that I wanted to stay with him forever. I understood the hatred he felt. I loved him for hugging me and comforting me."  
Rose whimpered and I realized I had been squeezing her hand so hard that it was all white. I let go of it, took a quivering breath and turned to Johanna. She was… smiling.  
"As I told you, Ruby, we are sisters and we understand each other. We know that when you find your family, you don't care about what they have done or how horrible they are in other people's eyes. You love them for taking care of you and comforting you.  
For my whole life, I've been longing for someone who would hold me when the night is cold, protect me from my nightmares. Yesterday, I fell asleep with my father's arms wrapped around me. He didn't dare to tell me the truth about the killing, but he told me other things. About pain, sorrow, hatred… Feelings I know, feelings I share with him. He also told me about you, Ruby. He said you would be the best sister I could wish for. He told me you are the light of his life, his daughter and soul mate, that you have been his reason for living the last four years…"  
Johanna's face features became blurred as my tears spilled over. Nellie had been right all the time; Sweeney would never forget about me. I had been so selfish, not even given him and Johanna some private time when they had been longing for each other for twenty years. I had even called him a demon…  
I started sobbing uncontrollably. Immediately, Rose was there and held me tight.  
"I love hi-him, I love him so-oh much…"  
"Hush, darling, hush. It's alright. You finish the story, and then you and Johanna go back home and hug him. It's alright."  
_Is it? Will anything ever be alright? I'm so broken, can anything ever heal me?  
_"He loves you too, Ruby." Johanna whispered and stroked my cheek. "I know he does, I can see it in his eyes."  
I really tried to stop crying, but it was impossible. So Rose finished to story for me, still holding me close to her.  
"Ruby had a brother, his name was Toby and Mrs. Lovett adopted him only a few months before Mr. Todd took care of Ruby. At age twelve, they both went to Hogwarts. Ruby was placed in the Slytherin house, where she made friends with a girl named Veruca Paige. Veruca was not a real friend, though, she was a horrible girl. When she followed Ruby home for Christmas and found out the truth about her family and their business, she threatened to go to the police and have both Mr. Todd and Mrs. Lovett hanged. Ruby had no choice but to kill Veruca, in order to protect her loved ones."  
Johanna nodded seriously. "Edmund told me a Slytherin girl named Veruca had been mysteriously killed. I would have done the same, Ruby, especially to protect our father. I still love you."  
That statement made me cry even more, as I didn't deserve her love.  
"What happened to Toby?" My sister then asked, and I could hear that she feared the worst.  
Rose sighted sadly. "I'm afraid he ended up the same way as Veruca. He found out the truth, and your father saw no other way than killing him."  
"I still love him too." Johanna said even more seriously. "He's not a bad person, he's just… broken. Like you, Ruby. I have a family now and family members love each other, no matter what."  
Somewhere there, I finally stopped crying.  
"I love you, Johanna."

_A/N:  
Acro111: Yes, I love the Inkheart series too! :D But I'm really happy as long as I don't have to meet any of my characters. Just think about how much Dustfinger hated Fenoglio, and all Fenoglio did was to kill him. What have I done to Ruby? I have killed her mother, created a man who raped her, put her into a homicidal and dysfunctional family, killed her brother, made her kill a school friend, taken her away from Sweeney… Gaah poor little girl. I'm sorry, Ruby, I'm just trying to create a good story xD_


End file.
